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 ↓
Spider Corn Cake
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.
Prepare
Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.
Beat the egg and add half of the sweet milk and all of the sour milk.
Stir this into the dry mixture.
Melt the butter in a hot skillet or shallow round pan.
Bake
Pour the mixture into the pan.
Pour the remaining sweet milk over the top without stirring.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cake.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and tenderness.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and the coarse, crumbly texture of the cake.
- Butter
- Melted in the hot pan, it adds fat and helps the base brown and release.
The step that matters
Pour the remaining sweet milk over the top without stirring. Leaving the top layer unstirred keeps the liquid on the surface so the batter bakes with a distinct layer instead of mixing evenly. Stirring would deflate the gas bubbles from the baking soda reaction and change the texture.
“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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