Name: Indian-and-wheat Batter Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup Indian corn flour; 1 cup wheat flour; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 cup thick or sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Indian-and-wheat Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the Indian corn flour and wheat flour.
Add the beaten eggs and thick or sour milk.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the coarse sea salt.
The batter should be thin enough to spread on the griddle.

Cook

Cook the cakes immediately after mixing.

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.

Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
Thick or sour milk: Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.
Indian corn flour: Provides the main body and corn flavour of the cakes.
Wheat flour: Provides gluten-forming structure so the cakes hold together.

The step that matters

Cook the cakes immediately after mixing. Baking soda reacts with the acidic milk as soon as it is combined, releasing gas. If the batter waits, much of that lift is lost before it reaches the griddle, so the cakes can turn out 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.

Corn Cake90 recipes

Corn Starch Cake89 recipes

Wheat Muffins48 recipes

Corn Cakes22 recipes

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Indian-and-wheat Batter Cakes