Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, milk, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
Add the beaten egg and mix well.
Fry the cakes
Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Pour 1 tablespoon of the mixture for each cake into the skillet. Fry until golden brown on both sides.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and gritty, golden structure of the cakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the cakes hold together when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the batter, giving the cakes a lighter texture.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and flour to form a pourable batter.
The step that matters
Fry until golden brown on both sides. Cornmeal and sugar brown through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Cooking over medium heat lets the centre set before the outside darkens too far.
“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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