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Breakfast

Jolly Boys

A fried cornmeal batter made with flour, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, milk, and salt, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Jolly Boys

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 ↓

Jolly Boys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald and cool the cornmeal.

  2. In a bowl, mix the cooled cornmeal, flour, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, milk, and salt until thick.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Serve warm for breakfast.

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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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, sturdy texture of the pancakes.
Flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the batter holds its shape while frying.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pancakes as they cook.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the pancakes.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to create rise and tenderness.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. The lard must be hot before the spoonfuls go in. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, helping the pancakes set and brown instead of soaking up grease and turning heavy.

“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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