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 ↓
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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake
In a large bowl, mix together the Indian meal, flour, sweet milk, sour milk, egg, salt, and baking soda until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Indian meal
- Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their coarse, grainy texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-forming structure so the cakes hold together rather than crumbling.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, which leavens the batter.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies liquid that hydrates the meal and flour and keeps the cakes moist.
The step that matters
Mix until well combined. Fully combining the batter spreads the baking soda evenly through the sour milk so the acid can react throughout, giving an even rise and crumb.
“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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