Why it works: Milk and corn 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 ↓
Corn Meal Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Bring ½ quart of the milk to a boil.
Scald ¾ pint of the corn meal with the boiling milk.
Add the remaining cold milk and corn meal to the mixture.
Stir in the white flour or egg if using.
Cook
Bake in small, thin cakes until light and tender.
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 + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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 cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
- Milk
- Hydrates the corn meal and scalding softens it, giving a moist batter.
- White flour
- Adds some gluten-forming starch to help the cakes hold together and stay tender.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds richness and structure to the cakes.
The step that matters
Scald the corn meal with the boiling milk. Scalding partly cooks the starch in the corn meal before the rest of the batter is added. This softens the grains and helps the cakes turn out tender rather than gritty or dense.
“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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