Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Splendid Corn Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Scald the cornmeal with hot water until it is the consistency of mush.
Let the mixture cool completely.
Add salt, melted butter, and beaten eggs to the cooled cornmeal.
Mix until the batter is about as thick as pound cake.
Bake
Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake for 1 hour in a 300°F (150°C) oven.
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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the cake and sets into a tender, mushy structure when scalded.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firm as it bakes.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister crumb.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool completely. Adding eggs and butter to hot cornmeal can scramble the eggs and thin the batter unevenly, so the cake may bake unevenly or fail to set.
“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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