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Corn-meal Pancakes

A batter of cornmeal, wheat flour, milk, water, egg, butter, baking powder, salt, and sugar cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn-meal Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cornmeal

  1. Add the cornmeal to the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the milk and the remaining dry ingredients, then mix and sift the mixture.

  2. Add the beaten egg and melted butter to the mixture.

Cook

  1. Cook on a greased griddle until golden brown.

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.

  1. Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal (in the method)
Gives the pancakes a slightly grainy texture and a mild corn flavour.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the pancakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Wheat flour
Provides the main structure as its proteins set during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps browning on the griddle.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown to a golden colour.

The step that matters

Cook on a greased griddle until golden brown. Heat must be moderate so the centre sets before the outside burns. Grease prevents sticking, and the browning comes from the sugars and proteins reacting with heat.

“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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