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 ↓
Johnny Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal and sour milk.
Beat in the egg and melted butter.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and add it to the mixture.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for about 30-40 minutes.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the cake its coarse, grainy structure.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and adds tenderness and tang.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps hold the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a moister crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk's acid to release gas, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Baking soda must react with the acid in the sour milk to lift the batter. Dissolving it fully in a little hot water and mixing it in evenly gives a consistent rise and avoids pockets of soda that can taste bitter.
“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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