Why it works: Wheat and corn 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 ↓
Johnny Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream together the butter and lard.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and mix with the shortening.
Add the sugar, wheat flour, and enough corn to make a moderately stiff batter.
Bake
Bake for about 30 minutes.
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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Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 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
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.
- Butter and lard
- Fats that coat flour particles and add richness and a tender crumb.
- Wheat flour
- Provides structure as the batter sets during baking.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly instead of leaving pockets of soda 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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