Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
New-england Johnny Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Stir enough Indian meal into the buttermilk to make a thin batter.
Add the salt and the beaten egg.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and mix it into the batter.
Ensure the batter is thin enough to almost run.
Bake
Bake in shallow pans.
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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Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Forms the cornmeal body of the cake, giving it its characteristic grainy structure.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to produce gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Keep the batter thin enough to almost run. A thin batter spreads evenly in shallow pans and bakes through, while a thick batter can stay dense. Baking soda must be dissolved and mixed in promptly so its gas forms while the batter is still loose enough to rise.
“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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