Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Indian-meal Cake — Johnny Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald the Indian meal by stirring in boiling water until a stiff dough forms.
Mold the dough into a cake about ¾ inch thick.
Bake
Bake on a board before the fire, or in a stove or range until cooked through.
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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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse-ground indian meal
- Forms the body of the cake; its starch sets into a firm dough when scalded.
- Boiling water
- Gelatinizes the meal's starch, binding it into a stiff, moldable dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, sweetness, and deeper browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Scalding the meal with boiling water. Boiling water swells and gelatinizes the cornmeal's starch, which lets the dough hold its shape when molded. Adding the water too cold or too little leaves the meal dry and crumbly, so the cake will not bind or cook evenly.
“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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