Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, mix cornmeal and salt.
Scald the mixture with boiling water.
Add egg yolks and flour, then beat together.
Thin the mixture with cold water as needed.
Bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake until golden.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Forms the body of the cake and gives it its corn flavour and texture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff and folded in, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
- Flour
- Adds structure and helps hold the cake together.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a denser, flatter cake.
“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.
More corn cake recipes
You might also like
Delicate Cake246 recipes
Boiled Frosting69 recipes
Citron Cake68 recipes
Scotch Cake63 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.