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Dessert

Johnny Cake

A sweet cornbread-like cake made with flour, cornmeal, sugar, milk, butter, baking powder, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 cup cornmeal, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

  3. In another bowl, combine 1 well-beaten egg and 1 scant cup milk.

  4. Sift the dry ingredients into the egg and milk mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.

  5. Add 3 tablespoons melted butter and mix well.

Bake

  1. Grease a flat pan or iron pan with 1 tablespoon melted butter or lard.

  2. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

  3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Cornmeal
Gives the cake its coarse, grainy texture and yellow color.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the batter rise and turn light in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Sifting the dry ingredients into the egg and milk mixture. Stirring only until combined keeps the batter from becoming tough, while thorough mixing is needed so the baking powder spreads evenly and the cake rises uniformly.

“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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