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Corn Meal Pop-overs

A fried cornmeal batter with egg and baking powder, cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Corn Meal Pop-overs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the boiled corn meal, egg, baking powder, and enough flour to thicken the mixture.

  2. Heat hot lard in a frying pan.

Fry

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 corn meal
Forms the main body of the batter and sets into a tender, firm crumb when cooked.
Egg
Binds the batter together and adds structure as it cooks and sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the popovers rise and turn light.
Flour
Thickens the batter and adds structure so the spoonfuls hold their shape.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning and a crisp, golden exterior.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it, so the spoonfuls keep their shape and absorb less grease. Cool fat lets the batter soak up oil and turn heavy.

“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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