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Dessert

Cokn Meal Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made from cornmeal, butter, eggs, sugar, sour milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cokn Meal Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine corn meal, melted butter, salt, eggs, and sugar.

  2. Add enough sour milk to create a batter consistency.

  3. If using saleratus, add a small amount and adjust with vinegar if necessary.

Cook

  1. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Forms the body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
Sour milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and gives a tangy flavor.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
Saleratus
Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to lift the batter and lighten the cakes.

The step that matters

Adding saleratus. Saleratus is a leavening agent that reacts with acid in the sour milk to release gas. Too little leaves the cakes dense, while too much leaves a soapy, bitter taste and off color. Adding it in small amounts and adjusting with vinegar keeps the balance right.

“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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