Name: Pumpkin Johnny Cakes
Ingredients: 1½ cups steamed pumpkin, mashed; 1 cup sugar; ½ cup flour; 2 cups cornmeal; 1 quart sour milk; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Pumpkin Johnny Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake

In a large bowl, combine the mashed pumpkin, sugar, flour, cornmeal, sour milk, beaten eggs, and baking soda. Mix until well combined.
Pour the batter onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,404 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk 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: Provides the coarse, grainy body that gives johnny cakes their structure.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set its structure as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk: Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Mashed pumpkin: Adds moisture, body and a soft texture to the batter.