Name: Pearled Corn Meal Cake
Ingredients: one-half cup flour; one tablespoonful sugar; one teaspoonful salt; one cup sweet milk; one tablespoonful butter; one cup n; two tea- spoonfuls star crystal baking powder; two eggs; one-half inch thick

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 ↓

Pearled Corn Meal Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Melt one tablespoonful of butter.
Mix one cup N.Y. Health Food Co.'s pearled corn-meal, one-half cup flour, one tablespoonful sugar, one teaspoonful salt, two teaspoons Star Crystal Baking Powder, two eggs, one cup sweet milk, and the melted butter in the given order.

Bake

Bake the batter about one-half inch thick in a rather quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories

27 gProtein

26 gFat

120 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together738 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Pearled cornmeal (in the method): Provides the main body and corn flavour of the cake.
Flour: Adds structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure, moisture and richness to the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise and become light.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Bake the batter in a rather quick oven. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet and mixed, so the batter should go into a hot oven promptly. Delay lets gas escape and can leave the cake flatter and denser.

“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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Pearled Corn Meal Cake