Name: Corn Cakes with Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraîche
Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups white or yellow corn kernels (from; about 2 ears); 1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal; 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup milk; 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted; and cooled; 2 eggs; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper; 1/4 cup melted clarified unsalted butter or; peanut oil, or as needed; 16 small slices smoked salmon; 1 cup crème fraîche; 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives

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 ↓

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Smoked Salmon	100g cooked	208
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Peanut Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Corn Cakes with Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraîche