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
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine grated corn, eggs, melted butter, sweet milk, and rolled Boston crackers. Mix until well combined.
Fry
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add a little butter.
Pour batter into the skillet and fry 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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grated corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet corn flavor of the cakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help the cakes hold together while frying.
- Rolled boston crackers
- Absorb liquid and add body so the batter holds its shape.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
- Sweet milk
- Moistens the batter and loosens it for pouring.
The step that matters
Frying on both sides over medium heat. Medium heat lets the centre cook through before the outside browns too far. Flipping once, when the underside is set and golden, keeps the cakes intact and evenly coloured.
“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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