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Dessert

Corn Batter Cakes

A simple batter of cornmeal, milk, egg, lard, baking powder, and salt baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift the baking powder and salt into the corn meal.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, beaten egg, and melted lard.

Mix and cook

  1. Stir the wet ingredients into the corn meal mixture, beating steadily.

  2. Bake immediately on a well-greased iron griddle.

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Provides the main structure and the coarse, grainy texture of the cakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cakes to rise and become light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during cooking.
Milk
Hydrates the corn meal and adds moisture to the batter.
Melted lard
Adds fat for tenderness and helps keep the cakes from sticking.

The step that matters

Bake immediately on a well-greased iron griddle. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid, so waiting lets the batter lose lift. A well-greased, hot iron griddle sets the outside quickly and prevents sticking.

“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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