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Dessert

Indiana Batter Cakes

A cornmeal batter cake made with lard, baking soda, and water, baked on a griddle and served with butter or molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Indiana Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift cornmeal into a bowl.

  2. Add lard or drippings and baking soda dissolved in warm water.

  3. Mix in cold water to form a soft dough.

  4. Gradually add warm water to achieve a moderate batter consistency.

  5. Stir well for 30 minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a griddle and bake the batter like buckwheat cakes.

  2. Serve hot with butter or molasses.

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.

  1. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow cornmeal
Forms the main body of the pancakes and gives them their structure and corn flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the batter so the pancakes rise and stay tender while cooking.
Lard or beef drippings
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and a savory flavor in the cakes.

The step that matters

Stir well for 30 minutes. Long stirring hydrates the cornmeal fully so the grains soften and the batter becomes smooth and even. Without it, the cakes can turn out gritty and uneven.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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