Name: Griddle Cakes and the Like
Ingredients: 14 cups corn meal; 1 tablespoon melted shortening; 1 cup boiling water; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 egg; 1 to 2 tablespoons sweetening (optional); 2 cups sour milk; ½ cup wheat flour

Why it works: Corn and wheat 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 ↓

Griddle Cakes and the Like

Ingredients

Directions

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.
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.

Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 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

Corn meal: Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the cakes their grainy, sturdy structure.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the cakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
Sour milk: Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the batter.
Wheat flour: Adds gluten-based structure that helps hold the cakes together on the griddle.
Shortening: Adds fat that gives tenderness and helps prevent sticking and drying.

The step that matters

Let the scalded cornmeal cool fully before adding the rest. Scalding softens the cornmeal and swells its starch. Adding the egg, milk and leavener to a hot mixture can cook the egg unevenly and weaken the rise from the baking soda, so letting it cool first keeps the batter smooth and lifted.

“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