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Dessert

Indian Light Cake

A cake made with Indian meal, milk, eggs, butter, salt, and dissolved saleratus, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Indian Light Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the butter and salt with the Indian meal.

  2. Boil half the milk.

  3. Add the dissolved saleratus and the well-beaten eggs to the remaining half of the cold milk.

  4. Pour the boiling milk over the meal.

  5. Let it cool.

  6. Add the cold milk mixture to the cooled meal.

Bake

  1. Bake in a shallow pan at 400°F (200°C) until set.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Saleratus
Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and turn lighter.
Indian meal
Forms the main body of the cake, setting into a firm crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps hydrate the meal into a smooth batter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling milk over the meal. Scalding the cornmeal softens its starch and makes the batter easier to mix smooth. Adding the cold egg and saleratus mixture only after the meal has cooled keeps the eggs from scrambling and the leavener from losing its lift before baking.

“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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