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Polenta Cheese Cakes

A baked dish of milk, cornmeal, flour, cheese, and salt, formed into cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Polenta Cheese Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the polenta

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, and salt.

  3. Stir the dry mixture into the scalded milk all at once.

  4. Cook for 30 minutes or longer, stirring occasionally.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese.

  6. Spread the mixture in a buttered dish to form a layer about 1 inch thick.

  7. Allow to cool, then cut into squares or rounds.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the pieces in a buttered baking dish, layering with additional grated cheese.

  2. Top with a final layer of cheese.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  4. Serve directly from the baking dish.

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.

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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,860 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Milk
Liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and forms a thick, creamy base as it cooks.
Cornmeal
Provides the main structure, thickening as its starch gelatinizes and then sets when cooled.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and melts and browns on top during baking.
Flour
Helps thicken the mixture and gives the cut pieces a more stable, cohesive texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the dry mixture into the scalded milk all at once. Adding the cornmeal and flour in one go and stirring well prevents lumps, since starch clumps when it hits hot liquid unevenly. Cooking long enough afterward fully gelatinizes the starch so the mixture sets firm enough to cut.

“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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