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 ↓
Corn Cake
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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
Sift together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the milk.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add it to the milk and eggs.
Quickly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients before the butter cools.
Bake
Pour the batter into greased deep layer cake pans or any shallow pan, filling them only halfway.
Bake until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse, grainy texture and corn flavor that define the cake.
- All-purpose flour
- Gives the cake structure so it holds its shape after baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter together.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor.
The step that matters
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry quickly. Once the batter is combined, baking powder begins releasing gas and gluten begins to form. Delaying the mix or overmixing can leave the cake dense or tough, and the butter should still be warm so it stays spread through the batter rather than setting in clumps.
“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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