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Cokn-meal Batter-cakes

A batter of cornmeal, lard, water, eggs, salt, and milk cooked on a griddle into golden cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cokn-meal Batter-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine cornmeal and lard.

  2. Pour boiling water over the mixture and stir until cool.

  3. Add eggs and salt, then thin the batter with milk to desired consistency.

Cook and serve

  1. Preheat a griddle and pour batter to form cakes.

  2. Cook until golden brown and serve hot.

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the pancakes their body and corn flavor.
Boiling water
Scalds the cornmeal, softening its starch so the batter becomes smooth and pliable.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cakes set.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.

The step that matters

Pour boiling water over the cornmeal. Boiling water must be stirred in fully so the cornmeal starch gelatinizes evenly. Unscalded lumps stay gritty and can make the cakes crumble or cook unevenly.

“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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