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 ↓
Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, mix the corn meal, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and milk to the butter mixture, mixing well.
Gradually combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until just blended.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Corn meal
- Gives the cake its coarse, grainy texture and characteristic corn flavor.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the cake holds its shape as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed with butter.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, helping bind the batter as it sets.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
The step that matters
Gradually combine the wet and dry ingredients until just blended. Flour proteins form gluten once liquid is added, and overmixing toughens the batter. Stopping once just blended keeps the cake tender.
“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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