Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
New England Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Scald the milk and gradually pour it over the corn meal.
When cool, add the melted butter, salt, and yeast.
Do this at night.
In the morning, beat the mixture thoroughly.
Add the well-beaten eggs and baking soda dissolved in water.
Rise and bake
Pour the mixture into buttered deep earthen plates.
Let it stand for 15 minutes to rise again.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
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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Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 to the crumb.
- Yeast
- Leavens the batter by fermentation, giving it a light, airy texture.
- Corn meal
- Forms the bulk of the cake and gives it its coarse, grainy texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to add extra lift and a tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture thoroughly in the morning. Thorough beating works air into the fermented batter and distributes the yeast evenly, so the cake rises evenly. Under-beating leaves dense pockets and uneven rise.
“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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