Name: Johnny Cake
Ingredients: 1 quart Indian meal (cornmeal); 1 quart milk; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup molasses; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda

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 ↓

Johnny Cake

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix the Indian meal, milk, eggs, sugar, butter, salt, molasses, cream of tartar, and baking soda until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal (cornmeal): Provides the bulk and coarse, grainy structure of the cake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the crumb as it bakes.
Milk: Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture and tenderness.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor, and aids browning.
Cream of tartar: Acidic component that reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas, helping it rise.

“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.