Name: Nantucket Corn Meal Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup corn meal; 2 cups white flour; sour milk (enough to make a fairly thick batter); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; sweet milk (as needed to thin batter); 1 or 2 eggs; salt pork (for greasing the griddle)

Why it works: Corn and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,069 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Nantucket Corn Meal Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine cornmeal and white flour.
Add enough sour milk to create a fairly thick batter.
Stir in salt and sugar, then beat until very light.
Let the batter stand overnight.

Cook

Just before frying, dissolve baking soda in sweet milk and add to the batter along with the eggs.
Beat the mixture thoroughly, adding more sweet milk if the batter is too thick.
Heat a griddle and rub it with a piece of salt pork.
Fry the batter on the hot 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.

Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Corn meal: Gives the cakes their gritty, cornbread-like texture and flavor.
White flour: Provides structure so the cakes hold together when fried.
Sour milk: Makes the batter tender and reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set during frying.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the batter. Baking soda must be dissolved and mixed in just before frying so its reaction with the sour milk produces gas while the batter is still fresh. If it sits too long, the leavening weakens and the cakes come out flatter.

“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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Nantucket Corn Meal Griddle Cakes