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Dessert

Hominy and Corn Meal Cakes

A cake made from hominy, cornmeal, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Hominy and Corn Meal Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hominy

  1. Mix two tablespoonfuls fine uncooked hominy, one-half teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful butter, and one-half cup of boiling water.

  2. Set over the boiling teakettle until the water is all absorbed.

Make the batter

  1. Pour one cup boiling milk over one scant cup of cornmeal.

  2. Add two tablespoonfuls sugar and the hominy.

  3. Cool and whisk in two eggs (yolks and whites beaten separately).

  4. Add one heaping teaspoonful Star Crystal Baking Powder.

Bake

  1. Bake in gem pans twenty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Corn + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fine uncooked hominy
Adds a coarse, toothy texture and body to the batter.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, binding the cakes as they set.
Cornmeal (in the method)
Forms the base of the cakes, giving them their corn flavor and crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the cakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown at the edges.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs separately. Whites beaten separately and folded in trap air that helps the cakes rise and stay light. Stirring them in without separating the yolks and whites can leave the cakes dense.

“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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