Why it works: Molasses and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Indian Cake, or Bannock
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the Indian meal, treacle or molasses, salt, and butter or lard.
Stir the mixture together until well combined.
Add enough scalding water to make the mixture moist.
Bake
Pour the batter into a well-greased pan and smooth the surface with a spoon.
Bake in a 400°F (200 °C) oven until brown on both sides.
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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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
- Indian meal
- Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, crumbly structure.
- Treacle or molasses
- Adds sweetness, a dark colour and moisture to the bread.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat, which softens the crumb and adds richness.
- Scalding water
- Hydrates the cornmeal so the mixture becomes moist and cohesive.
The step that matters
Add enough scalding water to make the mixture moist.. Cornmeal absorbs liquid slowly and unevenly, so too little water leaves the bread dry and crumbly, while too much makes it heavy and dense. Scalding water partly cooks the starch, helping the meal bind and soften.
“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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