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 ↓
Spider Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift together the corn meal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg, sweet milk, and sour milk.
Make and bake
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then add the melted butter.
Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.
Bake in the preheated oven 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.
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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Milk + buttertop 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.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the cake holds together with the corn meal.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set the crumb as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk's acidity to produce gas that lightens the cake.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for moisture, tenderness and flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as the acidic sour milk is mixed in, so the batter should go into the pan and the oven promptly. Underbaking leaves a gummy centre, while overbaking dries the cake out.
“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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