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Corn Griddle Cakes

A batter of cornmeal, flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and baking powder cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Corn Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Scald the cornmeal with boiling water in a bowl.

  2. Add salt, butter, and sugar to the mixture.

  3. Sift the wheat flour and baking powder together, then add to the bowl.

  4. Beat the egg yolks, then mix the beaten yolks with the sweet milk and stir into the batter.

  5. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Cook

  1. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Butter and flour 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

Fresh cornmeal
Forms the main body of the pancake, giving it its corn flavour and texture.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and add rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the pancakes hold together while cooking.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates it and leaves the pancakes flat and dense.

“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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