Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Corn Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine grated corn, eggs, softened butter, milk, salt, and flour. Mix until well combined.
Heat a griddle over medium heat or heat lard in a skillet.
Cook
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the griddle or into the hot lard.
Cook until golden brown on both sides.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Grated corn
- Provides the main body and sweet corn flavor of the cakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the cakes as they cook.
- Flour
- Gives the batter structure so the cakes hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and tenderness.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a spoonable consistency.
The step that matters
Cook until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the centers set while the outside browns through the Maillard reaction. Too hot a griddle browns the outside before the interior cooks, leaving raw batter inside.
“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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