Name: Corn Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup yellow corn meal; 1¼ cups all-purpose flour; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons butter, softened; 2 eggs, separated; 1½ cups milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Corn Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.

Make and bake the batter

Sift together the corn meal, flour, salt, and baking powder; add to the creamed mixture along with the beaten egg yolks.
Mix well and gradually add the milk.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Pour the batter into muffin rings or a pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Eggs: Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites lighten it as they trap air.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Yellow corn meal: Gives the cake its coarse texture and corn flavor.
All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together.
Milk: Hydrates the dry ingredients to form a pourable batter and adds moisture.