Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
White Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sweet milk, corn flour, wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, eggs, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn flour
- Provides the corn flavour and tender, crumbly structure that defines this cake.
- Wheat flour
- Adds gluten for structure so the cake holds together alongside the corn flour.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic partner to baking soda, releasing carbon dioxide for rising and a lighter crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flours and dissolves the sugar and leavening.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking soda and cream of tartar release gas quickly once wet, so the batter must go into the oven promptly. Pulling the cake too early leaves a wet, sunken centre, while overbaking dries it out.
“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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