Name: Hominy Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled hominy; 1 tablespoon melted cottolene; 3 eggs, well whipped; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon molasses; 1 quart milk; 1 cup sifted flour

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hominy Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Rub the cold boiled hominy smooth.
Beat in the melted cottolene.
Add the well-whipped eggs, salt, and molasses.
Stir in the milk and then the sifted flour.
Stir for two minutes.

Bake

Bake.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Hominy: Provides the main body and bulk of the batter, giving the cakes their base texture.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure, helping the cakes hold together and rise.
Flour: Adds starch that sets during cooking, giving the cakes firmness and structure.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it spreads and cooks through evenly.
Cottolene: Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, depth of flavour and a darker browning in the baked cakes.

“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.