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Dessert

Hominy Cakes

A baked cake made from cooked hominy, flour, milk, eggs, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hominy Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Crush the cooked hominy with a potato masher until smooth.

  2. Add salt, baking powder, and flour; stir to combine.

  3. Gradually add the milk, mixing well.

  4. Finally, fold in the well-beaten eggs.

Bake

  1. Bake in thin cakes until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Cooked hominy
Provides the bulk and corn flavor that forms the body of the cakes.
Flour
Adds starch and structure so the batter holds together while baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lightening the cakes and helping them rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and hominy, giving the batter its moisture and pourable texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking, adding richness and structure.

The step that matters

Folding in the eggs. Beaten eggs hold air that helps lift the cakes. Overmixing after they are added knocks that air out and can make the cakes dense and tough.

“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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