Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Green Corn Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Grate the sweet corn and place it in a bowl.
Add salt, egg, and flour; mix until combined.
Fry
Heat lard or butter in a skillet over medium‑high heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
Remove and drain on paper towels.
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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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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Sweet corn
- Provides the main body and sweet corn flavour of the cakes.
- Egg
- Binds the grated corn together so the cakes hold their shape.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture from the corn and helps the batter hold together while frying.
- Lard or butter
- Conducts heat to the batter and browns the surface of the cakes.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and turn heavy instead of forming a crisp, golden crust. Starting in hot fat sears the outside quickly.
“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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