Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Meal Pones
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal with the beaten eggs, salt, flour, and baking powder.
Stir in the scalded milk until well combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into white cups or small bowls.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.
Serve hot, turning them out onto plates and enjoy with butter or syrup.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firm as it bakes.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and corn flavor of the pone.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softens the cornmeal so the batter pours smoothly.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the pone rises and turns lighter.
The step that matters
Scald the milk. Scalding the milk softens the cornmeal's starch and helps the batter combine evenly, giving a smoother texture after baking.
“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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