Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Hominy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hominy
Cook the hominy as directed in Breakfast No. 6.
Mould the cooked hominy in a small oblong tin pan.
Wet the pan with cold water to prevent sticking.
Once cold, cut the hominy into slices nearly an inch thick.
Fry and serve
Flour each side of the slices.
Fry the slices on a griddle in a little butter or sweet drippings until nicely browned.
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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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
- Hominy
- Forms the base that is shaped, sliced and fried into a firm cake.
- Flour
- Coats the slices so they brown evenly and develop a crisp surface when fried.
- Butter or sweet drippings
- Conducts heat to the slices and adds richness and browning to the surface.
The step that matters
Let the hominy cool fully before slicing. Cooked hominy is soft and crumbly while warm. Chilling lets the starches set so the slices hold their shape and do not break apart in the pan.
“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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