Name: Tamale Pie
Ingredients: 2 cups corn meal; 1 tablespoon fat; 2 cups tomatoes; 6 cups water; 1 onion; 1 pound hamburger steak; 1 teaspoon salt; pepper to taste; optional: sweet pepper

Why it works: Corn and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Tamale Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mush

In a pot, bring 6 cups of water to a boil.
Stir in 2 cups of corn meal and 1 teaspoon of salt to make a mush. Cook for 45 minutes.

Make the meat filling

In a skillet, brown the onion in 1 tablespoon of fat.
Add the hamburger steak and cook until it is no longer red.
Season with salt, pepper, and 2 cups of tomatoes. Optionally, add sweet pepper.

Assemble and bake

Grease a baking dish and layer half of the corn meal mush in the bottom.
Add the seasoned meat mixture on top, then cover with the remaining corn meal mush.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn meal: Forms the thick mush that sets into the firm base and top layers.
Hamburger steak: Provides the meaty filling and savory flavor of the pie.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity to the meat filling.
Onion: Adds aroma and sweetness as it browns in the fat.