Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Jolly Boys
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Pour boiling water over the Indian meal, sugar, and salt.
Stir until it forms a thick dough.
Once cool, add the beaten egg, flour, and baking soda. Mix well.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan.
Fry the mixture like pancakes until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Indian meal
- Forms the thick base of the dough and gives the cakes their body and corn flavour.
- Egg
- Binds the dough so it holds together when fried.
- Flour
- Adds structure and helps the batter hold its shape in the pan.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lighten the batter and helps the cakes rise and brown.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface turn golden brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown. Cooking over moderate heat lets the centre set while the surface browns. Frying too hot browns the outside before the inside is cooked through.
“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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