Name: Nice Johnny-cake
Ingredients: 3 cups cornmeal; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 2 cups sweet milk; 1 cup sour cream; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Nice Johnny-cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt.

Make and bake the batter

Add the sweet milk and sour cream to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Cornmeal: Forms the coarse, sturdy body of the cake and gives it its characteristic grainy texture.
All-purpose flour: Adds gluten-based structure so the cake holds together better than cornmeal alone.
Sweet milk: Hydrates the dry ingredients so they form a batter and adds moisture.
Sour cream: Adds fat and moisture for a tender crumb and a slight tang.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity of the sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.

“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.