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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, sugar, and melted butter.
Make and bake
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool slightly before serving.
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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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Provides the coarse grain structure and the characteristic gritty texture of the cake.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps give the cake its set structure as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness, moisture and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Stirring too long develops gluten in the flour-based batter and makes the cake tough. Mixing only until no dry streaks remain keeps the crumb tender and the rise even.
“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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