Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix and sift the dry ingredients together.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the milk and melted butter.
Combine the wet mixture with the dry ingredients.
Cook
Bake on a well-oiled griddle until golden brown.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cakes rise and turn light.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and corn flavor of the cakes.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the batter holds together on the griddle.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients and moistens the batter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
The step that matters
Bake on a well-oiled griddle until golden brown. Too little oil lets the batter stick and tear, while low heat leaves the centers doughy. Cook until bubbles form and edges look set, then flip once, so the browning comes from the Maillard reaction on the surface.
“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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