Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Green Corn Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Grate the corn from the cob.
In a bowl, beat the egg and add the milk or cream.
Mix in the grated corn and salt to taste.
Stir in the melted butter and enough flour to hold the mixture together.
Cook
Heat lard or butter in a skillet or on a griddle.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot surface and cook until golden brown on both sides.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter and flour 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
- Grated corn
- Provides the main body and sweet corn flavour of the cakes.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps the cakes hold together while cooking.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture and gives the batter enough structure to hold its shape.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richer flavour and helps the cakes brown.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls onto the hot surface. If the lard or butter is not hot enough, the cakes absorb fat and turn greasy rather than browning. Starting with a properly heated surface gives a crisp golden exterior and keeps the centre tender.
“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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