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Polenta Cheese Cakes

A baked dish of polenta mixed with cheese, formed into cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Polenta Cheese Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the polenta base

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the corn meal, flour, and salt.

  3. Stir the dry mixture into the scalded milk all at once.

  4. Cook the mixture for 30 minutes or longer, stirring occasionally.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese.

  6. Spread the mixture in a buttered dish to form a layer about 1 inch thick.

  7. Allow to cool, then cut into squares or rounds.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the pieces in a buttered baking dish, layering with additional grated cheese.

  2. Top with a final layer of cheese.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  4. Serve in the baking dish.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Corn meal
Forms the thick, starchy body of the cakes as it cooks and sets.
Milk
Hydrates the corn meal and flour so the mixture cooks into a smooth, creamy base.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavor and fat, and browns on top in the oven.
Flour
Helps thicken the mixture and gives the cut pieces a firmer structure.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture long enough. Corn meal starch must be cooked thoroughly in liquid to swell and thicken fully; undercooked polenta stays grainy and will not set firmly when cooled and cut. Stirring keeps the mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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