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 Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Melt the butter in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
Add the melted butter and eggs to the dry ingredients.
Gradually mix in sweet milk until the batter is as thick as griddle cakes.
Cook
Cook on a hot griddle 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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse, grainy texture and corn flavour that define the pancake.
- All-purpose flour
- Gives the pancakes structure so they hold their shape while cooking.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness and structure to the cooked pancakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid with the baking soda, helping the pancakes rise and become tender.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly on the griddle.
The step that matters
Cooking on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. If the griddle is not hot enough, the pancakes spread and absorb fat without browning well. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre sets. Cornmeal batters need steady, moderate heat so the leavening works and the pancakes cook 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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