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Virginia Batty Cakes

A batter of flour, cornmeal, eggs, buttermilk, and soda cooked on a greased griddle to make Virginia Batty Cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Virginia Batty Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine two cups sifted flour, one cup cornmeal, and three eggs beaten separately into a batter with buttermilk, or some milk in which a teaspoon of soda has been thoroughly dissolved.

  2. Pour batter onto a greased griddle from a spoon.

  3. Allow the cakes to have the thickness of good buckwheat cakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
Cornmeal (in the method)
Adds a coarser, grainy texture that sets these cakes apart from plain flour batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the cakes firm as they cook.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the batter and helps the cakes rise.
Buttermilk (in the method)
Supplies moisture and mild acidity that activates the soda and tenderises the crumb.

The step that matters

Allow the cakes to have the thickness of good buckwheat cakes. Batter spread too thin cooks dry and crisp before it sets, while a very thick cake can brown outside before the centre is cooked through. Matching the stated thickness gives an even rise and a moist centre.

“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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