Why it works: Flour and butternut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 37 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Johnny 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.
Make the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the sweet milk, Indian meal, and flour until combined.
Add the eggs, butter, sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then mix well.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick 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.
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.
-
Flour + butternuttop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Indian meal (cornmeal)
- Adds a coarse, grainy texture and a toasty corn flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the crust brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda to produce lift and a lighter crumb.
The step that matters
Get the batter into the pan and into the oven promptly. Baking soda and cream of tartar start releasing gas as soon as they meet liquid. Waiting too long before baking lets much of that lift escape, so the cake may rise less.
Swap the butternut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, butter, sugar, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Butternutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, butter, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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.
More johnny cake recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.