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Dessert

Johnny Cakes

A quick batter of cornmeal, milk, butter, flour, and baking soda baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Johnny Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal and sour milk or buttermilk.

  2. Add the cream or butter and beat well together.

  3. Sift the flour and baking soda into the mixture and stir until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven and serve hot for breakfast.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Indian meal
Provides the coarse, corn-based texture and flavour that define the cakes.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and its liquid moistens the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas that lifts the batter.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together while it bakes.
Cream or butter
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and enriches the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the flour and baking soda until combined. Once the flour is added, overmixing develops gluten, which makes the cakes tough. Stirring just until combined keeps them tender. Baking soda reacts with the acid as soon as it is wet, so the batter should go into the oven promptly to get the full lift.

“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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