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 ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine cornmeal, sour milk or buttermilk, baking soda, and salt.
If desired, add flour or cornstarch.
Mix until well combined.
Cook the cakes
Heat a griddle over medium heat.
Lightly grease the griddle.
Pour batter onto the griddle.
Cook until bubbles form.
Flip and cook until golden brown.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Moistens the batter and provides the acid needed to activate the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic milk to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
- Flour or cornstarch
- Adds structure and tenderness to the batter; optional.
The step that matters
Cook until bubbles form before flipping. Bubbles appearing on the surface show that the batter has set enough to hold its shape. Flipping earlier can tear the cakes, and the gas from the baking soda is released as they cook.
“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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