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Dessert

Corn Puffs

A baked cornmeal and potato puff made with nut milk and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Corn Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Pour the nut milk over the cornmeal.

  2. Add the mashed potatoes and mix thoroughly.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg.

Bake

  1. Bake in gem pans at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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.

  1. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the batter and, when beaten, adds air that helps the puffs rise and set.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and starch that keep the puffs tender inside.
Yellow cornmeal
Provides the corn flavour and the grainy body of the puffs.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg in the batter. That trapped air expands in the oven and helps the puffs rise. Stirring hard would knock the air out and leave the puffs dense.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Sweet potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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