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Jolly Boys

A fried cornmeal and flour batter cooked in lard, served warm for breakfast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Jolly Boys

Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Jolly Boys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and cool the corn meal.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the cooled corn meal with flour, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, a little milk, and salt until thick.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a pan.

  2. Fry the mixture in the hot lard until golden brown.

  3. Serve warm for breakfast.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Flour and milk 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

Corn meal
Forms the main body of the pancakes and gives them their corn flavor and texture.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together when fried.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the pancakes rise.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and supports rising.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. The batter is thick and the pan must be hot enough to brown the outside before the inside is set. Too cool a pan lets the pancakes soak up fat and turn heavy and greasy, while too hot a pan can scorch the outside before the centre cooks through.

“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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