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 ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a bowl.
Beat eggs in another bowl and mix in melted butter.
Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and stir in sweet milk until batter consistency like griddle cakes.
Cook
Cook on hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and the characteristic grainy corn texture of the cakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds structure so the cakes hold together when cooked.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness and structure as the cakes set.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic partner to baking soda, helping the cakes rise and tenderise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavour and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Cook on hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. The griddle must be hot enough to set the batter quickly and brown it. If it is too cool, the cakes spread, absorb grease and stay pale and gummy, and the leavening loses its lift before the centre sets.
“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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