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Hominy Griddle Cakes

A batter of hominy, milk or water, flour, eggs, and salt is cooked on a griddle to make griddle cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Hominy Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine warm boiled hominy, milk or water, and flour in a bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs and stir them into the mixture along with the salt.

Cook

  1. Heat a griddle and pour batter to form cakes.

  2. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Hominy
Provides the bulk and tender, slightly grainy body of the cakes.
Flour
Gives the batter structure so the cakes hold their shape on the griddle.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
Milk or water
Hydrates the flour and hominy to form a pourable batter.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown on both sides. Browning comes from Maillard reactions on the cooked surface, which add flavor and color. Flipping only once the underside is set keeps the cakes from tearing or staying pale and doughy in the centre.

“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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