Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Parker House Corn 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine flour, corn meal, cream of tartar, baking soda, and a pinch of salt.
In another bowl, mix the egg, sugar, butter, and milk.
Make and bake the batter
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and beat well.
If desired, fold in the floured raisins before baking.
Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.
Bake until golden brown. Let cool before serving.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Corn meal
- Gives the cake its coarse texture and characteristic corn flavor.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping the batter set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
The step that matters
Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Beat only until the batter is combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough and dense, and the leavening reaction starts as soon as the liquid meets the acid and soda.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, corn, cream, milk, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, corn, cream, milk, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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