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Corn Meal Pancakes

A batter of cornmeal, flour, baking powder, molasses, egg, and milk is fried and served with maple syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Meal Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Pour boiling water over corn meal and let it cool.

  2. Add flour, baking powder, molasses, and beaten egg.

  3. Mix in enough milk to make a batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry on a hot greased griddle until golden brown.

  2. Serve with maple syrup.

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Corn meal
Soaked in boiling water, it softens and gives the pancakes a coarse, tender texture and grainy flavor.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds together when fried.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and deep flavor, and helps the pancakes brown.

The step that matters

Let the corn meal cool after the boiling water. Corn meal must soften and the mixture must cool enough that the egg does not scramble and the baking powder is not weakened by excess heat. Letting it rest gives a smoother batter that cooks evenly on the griddle.

“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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