Name: Griddle Cakes and the Like
Ingredients: 3 cups cornmeal; 1 tablespoon shortening (melted); 1 cup boiling water; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 egg; 1 to 2 tablespoons sweetening (optional); 2 cups sour milk; 4 cups wheat flour

Why it works: Milk and wheat 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 ↓

Griddle Cakes and the Like

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Scald the cornmeal with the boiling water mixed with salt; cover and let cool.
Once cool, add sweetening (if using), melted shortening, beaten egg, and part of the sour milk.
Sift together the flour and baking soda, then blend into the mixture with the remaining sour milk until you have a pourable batter.

Cook

Beat thoroughly and cook on a hot griddle until browned on both sides.

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 + wheattop 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).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 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).

Milk and flour 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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal: Scalding softens the cornmeal, giving the cakes a tender, moist body and a corn flavor.
Wheat flour: Provides gluten-forming structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk's acidity to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture to the batter.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds richness and structure to the cakes.

The step that matters

Sifting and blending the baking soda into the batter. Baking soda needs acid from the sour milk to react and leaven the batter. Sifting it with the flour spreads it evenly, so the cakes rise uniformly instead of showing dense or bitter patches.

“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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Griddle Cakes and the Like