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 ↓
Corn Cake, No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
Beat the eggs until light and set aside.
Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and add to the sour milk.
Combine the sour milk mixture with the dry ingredients.
Add the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.
Bake
Pour the batter into buttered baking tins to a depth of about 1.5 inches.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Forms the bulk of the cake and gives it its coarse, crumbly texture and corn flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the cake holds together better than cornmeal alone.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release carbon dioxide, causing the cake to rise.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda and combining it with the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce gas. Mixing it promptly into the acidic sour milk lets the bubbles form in the batter, and the batter should go into the oven soon after mixing so the gas is not lost before the cake sets.
“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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