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Green Corn Cakes

A batter of grated corn, sweet milk, flour, butter, eggs, salt, and baking soda cooked on a griddle.

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

Green Corn Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine grated corn, sweet milk, flour, melted butter, salt, and baking soda.

  2. Add beaten eggs just before baking.

  3. If the mixture is not stiff, add more flour until it reaches the desired consistency.

Cook

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a hot, buttered griddle and flatten slightly.

  2. Bake until golden brown, as these require longer baking than regular pancakes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Grated corn
Provides the main body and sweet corn flavour of the cakes.
Flour
Builds structure so the batter holds its shape while cooking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cakes set as they cook.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to help the cakes rise and lighten.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs just before baking. Eggs begin to set the batter and baking soda starts reacting once mixed, so waiting keeps the cakes light and airy when they hit the griddle.

“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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