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Green Corn Patties

A fried patty made from grated corn, eggs, milk, flour, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Green Corn Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Grate the corn from the ears.

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated corn, eggs, milk, flour, salt, and baking powder until well combined.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a skillet until boiling hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard and fry 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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Corn
Supplies the bulk and sweet corn flavour of the patties and moisture in the batter.
Eggs
Bind the grated corn together and help the patties hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Adds body to the batter so the patties set rather than falling apart in the hot fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to lighten the patties as they cook.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter and helps it brown evenly.

The step that matters

Frying in very hot lard. The lard must be boiling hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and gives golden browning, while cooler fat lets the patties soak up grease and turn heavy and soggy.

“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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