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Hominy Cakes

Hominy Cakes are baked cakes made with boiled hominy, melted cottolene, eggs, salt, molasses, milk, and sifted flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hominy Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the cold boiled hominy smooth.

  2. Beat in the melted cottolene.

  3. Add the well-whipped eggs, salt, and molasses.

  4. Stir in the milk and then the sifted flour.

  5. Mix for 2 minutes.

  6. Bake.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour 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

Hominy
Forms the bulk of the batter, giving the cakes their body and a coarse, grainy texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure, helping the cakes set as they cook.
Flour
Adds starch that thickens the batter and gives the cakes firmness when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture that loosens the batter and helps it cook through evenly.
Cottolene
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and helps the cakes brown at the edges.

The step that matters

Mix for 2 minutes. Beating the batter after the flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cakes tough. Mixing should be brief and just enough to combine the ingredients evenly.

“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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