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Jolly Boys

A fried batter made from rye meal, flour, cornmeal, molasses, sugar, egg, and water, cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Jolly Boys

Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Jolly Boys

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix together the rye meal, flour, cornmeal, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder until well combined.

  2. Add the beaten egg, molasses, sugar, and enough cold water to create a thick batter.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan over medium‑high heat.

  2. Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until well browned.

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. Rye + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rye + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye meal
Forms the main body of the pancakes and gives them their dense, earthy texture.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps hold the pancakes together as they fry.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and stay light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep colour and flavour, and helps the surface brown.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and promotes browning on the outside of the pancakes.

The step that matters

Fry until well browned. The pancakes need enough hot lard to brown through the surface, which develops flavour through the Maillard reaction. Too low a heat leaves them pale and greasy, while too high a heat can scorch the sugars and molasses before the centre is cooked.

“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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