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Old Fashioned Corn Pone

A cornbread-like cake made with cornmeal, flour, salt, molasses, and water, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Old Fashioned Corn Pone

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Scald 1 teacup of corn meal in 1 pint of boiling water.

  2. Add cold water to make it lukewarm.

  3. Mix in 2 teacups of corn meal.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of salt.

  5. Beat briskly.

  6. Let the mixture stand overnight in a warm place.

Rise and bake

  1. Add 1 teacup of flour and 1 tablespoon of molasses.

  2. Pour the batter into a deep, well-greased vessel.

  3. Let the batter rise for 1 hour.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 2 to 3 hours, using hot stones on top.

  5. Turn the cake upside down.

  6. Let it cool to remove easily.

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 + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Forms the main body of the bread, giving it its structure and corn flavor.
Flour
Adds some gluten-based structure, helping the batter hold its shape.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the batter stand overnight. The long rest lets the cornmeal absorb liquid and begin to ferment gently, which develops flavor and a looser texture. Too short a rest leaves the crumb dense and under-flavored.

“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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