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 ↓
Hoe Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make a very stiff batter with water and cornmeal, adding a pinch of salt.
Grease a griddle and pour on a large cake, patting it down.
Cook slowly, turning it until done.
Serve on a large plate, allowing each person to break off as much as they wish.
For Johnny Cake, use sour milk and baking soda, or substitute with sweet milk and baking powder.
When it begins to brown, baste with melted butter using a rag tied to a stick.
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 + 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Forms the main structure of the cake, since it makes up most of the batter.
- Flour
- Adds some extra structure and helps hold the batter together.
- Sour milk
- Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lighten the cake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown as it cooks.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness to the surface and deepens browning.
The step that matters
Cook slowly, turning it until done. A thick, stiff batter needs gentle heat so the centre cooks through before the outside burns. Turning it evenly helps it cook and brown uniformly.
“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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