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Corn Cakes

Corn cakes are batter cakes made with cornmeal, flour, molasses, milk, baking soda, salt, and optional ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, molasses, milk, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Mix until smooth. If desired, add ginger for flavor.

Cook the cakes

  1. Heat a skillet over medium heat and lightly grease it.

  2. Pour batter onto the skillet to form cakes.

  3. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip and cook until golden brown.

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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and grainy texture of the cakes.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together when cooked.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark color, and helps the cakes brown.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and flour to form a pourable batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift and lighten the cakes.

The step that matters

Cook until bubbles form, then flip. Bubbles on the surface show the batter has set enough to hold its shape when flipped. Flipping too early can tear the cake, while waiting too long can dry it out and overbrown it.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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