Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Rub the flour into the cold mush until well combined.
Add the lard and eggs, mixing thoroughly.
If the mixture is too stiff, add water to thin it.
Cook
Bake rapidly on a griddle 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Cold mush
- Forms the bulk of the batter and provides the body of the cake.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the cakes hold together when cooked.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firmly as it cooks.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
The step that matters
Baking rapidly on the griddle. A hot griddle sets the outside quickly and browns it before the interior dries out. A cool surface lets the cakes spread, absorb fat and turn heavy or pale.
“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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