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
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 the batter
Sift together the corn meal, flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture along with the beaten egg yolks. Mix well.
Slowly add the milk to the mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Pour the batter into muffin rings or a pan.
Bake
Bake for about 30 minutes until golden.
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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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Corn meal
- Provides the main body and the characteristic grainy texture of the cake.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the cake holds its shape after baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and binding; whipped whites add lift and airiness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour when creamed with the sugar.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients to form a pourable batter and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air bubbles that give lift. Folding gently keeps those bubbles intact, while vigorous stirring would deflate them and leave a denser cake.
“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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