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 ↓
Corn Cakes
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.
Prepare
In a bowl, combine corn meal, wheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Add the egg and butter, then mix rapidly and thoroughly.
Pour in the sweet milk and mix until well combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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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Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 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
- Corn meal
- Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps the cakes hold their structure as they set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Mix rapidly and thoroughly after adding the egg and butter. Once liquid is added, gluten in the wheat flour and the batter's starches begin to develop; overmixing can make the cakes tough, while mixing too little leaves dry pockets and uneven rising.
“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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