Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rub the lard into the cornmeal.
Stir the cornmeal into the sour milk with salt.
Beat the eggs until light.
Add the baking soda last. Mix well.
Bake
Bake in small gem pans or light tin forms.
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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Milk + eggtop 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main structure and body of the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure while lightening the texture when beaten.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
The step that matters
Add the baking soda last. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk, releasing gas that gives lift. Adding it last and mixing promptly keeps that gas in the batter so it rises in the pans rather than being lost before baking.
“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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