Why it works: Sugar and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
New English Johnny Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Mix cornmeal, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
Scald the mixture with boiling water.
Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.
Thin the batter with milk until it reaches the consistency of griddle cake batter.
Cook and puff
Preheat a griddle until very hot.
Cook the batter like griddle cakes.
Once cooked, place the cakes in a tin and put them in a very hot oven to puff.
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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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Granulated white cornmeal
- Forms the body of the cakes, giving them their characteristic grainy structure.
- Boiling water
- Scalds the cornmeal, softening its starch so the batter absorbs liquid and holds together.
- Milk
- Thins the batter to a pourable griddle consistency and adds moisture and richness.
- Sugar
- Adds a little sweetness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
The step that matters
Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes. During the rest, the scalded cornmeal continues to hydrate and swell, so the batter thickens and its texture becomes even. Skipping or shortening the rest can leave the batter gritty and uneven, so adjust the milk only after this rest is complete.
“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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