Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Hominy Fried
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine boiled hominy, butter, pepper, salt, and cream.
Add enough flour or white cornmeal to stiffen the mixture.
Stir until well combined.
Shape and fry
Form the mixture into small cakes.
Fry the cakes in butter on a griddle 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.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour 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
- Boiled hominy
- Forms the bulk of the fritters and gives them their main corn body.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and tender inside.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour, and helps the outside brown when frying.
- Flour or white cornmeal
- Stiffens the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
The step that matters
Frying the cakes. Cook over moderate heat so the outside turns golden brown while the inside heats through. Too hot a griddle browns the surface before the centre sets, and too cool a griddle leaves the cakes greasy and pale.
“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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