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Johnny Cakes

A cornmeal and flour batter cooked on a griddle, flavored with butter and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Johnny Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and sugar.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and mix in the melted butter.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients.

  4. Thin the batter with buttermilk or sour milk, or use sweet milk with baking powder.

Cook

  1. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their grainy, tender texture.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together on the griddle.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk or sour milk to lift and lighten the cakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. If the griddle is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and spread, turning pale and soggy. A properly hot surface sets the outside quickly and drives browning, which gives flavor and a firm crust.

“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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