Why it works: Corn and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Southern Corn Meal Pone or Corn Dodgers
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix the corn meal and salt.
Add melted butter or lard.
Gradually add cold water to form a soft dough.
Mold the dough into oval cakes using your hands.
Bake and serve
Place the cakes in well-greased pans.
Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is brown.
Serve hot.
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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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Forms the bulk of the dough, giving the pone its structure and coarse, sturdy texture.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the corn meal so the particles bind into a soft, shapeable dough.
The step that matters
Gradually add cold water to form a soft dough. Corn meal absorbs water unevenly, so adding it slowly lets you stop once the dough holds together. Too much water makes the cakes slack and hard to shape, while too little leaves them crumbly and dry.
“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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