Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Corn Batter Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar or molasses, and salt thoroughly.
Gradually add cold water, stirring briskly until you achieve a rather thick batter.
Cook
Cook on a hot griddle like flapjacks until golden brown on both sides.
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 + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 cakes and gives them their grainy, sturdy texture.
- Flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the cakes hold together when turned.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and turn lighter.
- Sugar or molasses
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown well on the griddle.
The step that matters
Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. A hot surface sets the outside quickly and browns the starches and sugars. If the griddle is too cool, the cakes absorb fat, turn pale and soggy, and may stay raw in the middle.
“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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