Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Grate the corn from the ears and scrape the cobs with the back of a knife.
Season the grated corn with salt and pepper.
Fry the cakes
Heat a little lard in a frying pan.
Drop spoonfuls of the corn mixture into the hot lard.
Cook until browned on one side, then turn and fry until light brown on the other side.
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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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Forms the body of the cakes and provides its own starch and sweetness as the base.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot lard. The lard must be hot enough for the batter to sear quickly on contact. This sets the outside, helps the cakes hold their shape, and keeps them from absorbing excess grease.
“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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