Name: Corn Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups flour; ½ cup corn meal; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1½ teaspoons salt; ½ cup sugar; 1½ cups boiling water; 1½ cups milk; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons melted butter

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 ↓

Corn Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Boil the corn meal in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Transfer to a bowl and add the milk and sifted dry ingredients.
Mix well, then add the beaten egg and melted butter.

Cook

Cook immediately on a hot griddle.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
Corn meal: Adds a coarse, grainy texture and corn flavor to the cakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the wet batter, making the cakes rise and become light.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps set the cakes' structure as they cook.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richer flavor and a more tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.

The step that matters

Cook immediately on a hot griddle. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid, so the batter should go onto the hot griddle right away. If it waits, the gas escapes and the cakes rise less and turn out flatter.

“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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Corn Griddle Cakes