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 ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, butter, sugar, and salt.
In a separate bowl, combine the beaten egg and sweet milk.
Add the egg and milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Cook
Heat a skillet over medium heat and pour in batter to form cakes.
Cook until golden brown on both sides.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together.
- Cornmeal
- Adds a coarse, grainy texture and corn flavor.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and helps browning in the pan.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during cooking.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Stir the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Once the liquid meets the flour, gluten begins to form. Overmixing makes the cakes tough and dense, so stop stirring as soon as no dry streaks remain. A few lumps are fine.
“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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