Name: Corn Meal Griddle-cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups sifted cornmeal; 1 cup wheat flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 large eggs, well beaten; sour milk, enough to achieve the right consistency; 1 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in a little water; or 2 teaspoons baking powder if using sweet milk

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Corn Meal Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

2 cups sifted cornmeal
1 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, well beaten
sour milk, enough to achieve the right consistency
1 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in a little water
or 2 teaspoons baking powder if using sweet milk

Directions

Scald the cornmeal in a saucepan.
Mix the cornmeal with wheat flour and salt.
Add the beaten eggs and thin the mixture with sour milk until the desired consistency is reached.
Beat the mixture until very light.
Add the dissolved baking soda (or baking powder if using sweet milk) and mix well.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

Cornbread345 recipes

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Corn Meal Griddle-cakes