Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Nantucket Corn Cake
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 batter
Slowly pour the white Indian meal into the boiling milk.
Let the mixture cool.
Beat the egg yolks and whites separately, then add them to the cooled mixture.
Stir in the sugar and salt.
Bake
Bake in rings or pans at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White indian meal
- Forms the main body of the cake and sets as it bakes, giving it structure.
- Boiling milk
- Cooks the meal into a thick mixture and supplies moisture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set it, while whipped whites add lightness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown at the edges.
The step that matters
Add the eggs to the cooled mixture. A very hot mixture can cook the egg yolks unevenly and deflate the beaten whites, so letting it cool first keeps the batter smooth and airy.
“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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