Skip to main content
Bread

Griddle Johnny Cakes

A cornmeal batter cooked on a hot griddle, served with maple syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and maple syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,252 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Griddle Johnny Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Add salt to the cornmeal.

  2. Pour boiling water over the cornmeal to form a thick drop batter.

  3. Stir in maple syrup and enough cold milk to make a thick pour batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Drop by tablespoons onto a well-greased hot griddle.

  2. Cook until golden brown and serve immediately.

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. Sugar + maple syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Milk + maple syruptop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together798 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cornmeal
Forms the body of the cakes and gives them their structure and corn flavour.
Boiling water
Scalds the cornmeal, softening its starch so the batter thickens and holds its shape.
Cold milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a thick pour consistency.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and flavour, and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.

The step that matters

Drop by tablespoons onto a well-greased hot griddle. A hot, well-greased surface sets the outside of each cake quickly so it does not stick or spread. Batter placed on a cool pan absorbs fat and can tear when flipped.

“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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes