Why it works: Milk and flour 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 Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix cornmeal, sour milk or buttermilk, egg, baking soda, and coarse sea salt in a bowl.
If desired, substitute the egg with flour or corn starch.
Cook
Preheat a griddle over medium-high heat.
Pour batter onto the griddle and cook 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 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).
Milk and flour 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 body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that react with the baking soda.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic milk to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
The step that matters
Cooking on both sides until golden brown. Medium-high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, which adds flavor and color. Flipping only once, after the edges set, helps the centre cook through without burning the outside.
“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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