Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Batter Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Boil the hominy until very soft.
Add cornmeal, salt, and butter to the hominy.
Mix in eggs and enough milk to create a thin batter.
Beat the mixture well.
Cook
Bake on a griddle or in waffle irons.
If eggs are unavailable, add yeast and let the batter rise for an hour.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hominy
- Softened by boiling, it gives the cakes body and a tender, starchy crumb.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main structure and the characteristic corn flavor of the cakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness and structure as it sets in the heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavor and a tender texture, and helps browning on the griddle.
- Yeast
- Optional leavening that makes the batter rise, giving a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture well. Thorough beating evenly distributes the eggs, butter, and starch through the thin batter, so the cakes cook uniformly and hold together without lumps or uneven texture.
“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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