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Corn Griddle Cakes

A batter of grated corn, eggs, butter, milk, salt, and flour cooked on a griddle or in lard.

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

  1. In a bowl, combine grated corn, eggs, butter, milk, salt, and flour, and mix until well combined.

Cook

  1. Heat a griddle over medium heat.

  2. Pour batter onto the griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Alternatively, drop spoonfuls of batter into hot lard and fry until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the cakes as they cook.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together.
Grated corn
Supplies the main body, sweetness and corn flavour of the cakes.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and a tender texture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the batter pours and spreads properly.

The step that matters

Cooking until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the centre cook through while the surface browns. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot, dry surface, so a griddle that is too hot scorches the outside before the inside sets.

“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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