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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Thicken the sour milk with sifted cornmeal, salt, and baking soda dissolved in milk.
Add molasses and lard or butter, then beat the mixture well.
Bake in the fireplace
Pour the batter into a well-greased iron baking pan with a cover.
Place the pan in the fireplace when the fire is raked for the night.
Cover the pan with hot ashes.
In the morning, enjoy a nice brown loaf for breakfast.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 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
- Sour milk
- Provides liquid and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the main structure and body of the loaf as it thickens.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the loaf rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps the crust turn a deep brown.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in milk before mixing. Baking soda needs acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in milk and stirring it evenly through the sour milk spreads the reaction through the batter, so the loaf rises evenly instead of leaving pockets or dense patches.
“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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