Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Spider Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat eggs, then mix in sugar, sour milk, and sweet milk.
Combine cornmeal and flour with the egg mixture.
Dissolve baking soda in 1 teaspoon hot water, then add to mixture.
Bake and serve
Heat skillet on stove, melt butter in it.
Pour batter into skillet, add 1 cup sweet milk without stirring.
Place skillet in oven, bake 20–25 minutes.
Cake is done when a streak of custard appears.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provides the main structure and gritty, sturdy body of the cake.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set as they bake, giving the cake its firm structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bottom crisp and brown in the hot skillet.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure that holds the cornmeal together and keeps the crumb tender.
The step that matters
Check for a streak of custard, not a fully set center. Eggs set as they heat, so a thin wet streak shows the center is still soft. Stopping at that point keeps the cake moist, while baking longer can dry it out.
“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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