Why it works: Flour and milk 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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the batter
Sift the cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until stiff.
Add the egg yolks to the milk and mix thoroughly with the dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter into muffin pans or a sheet pan.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
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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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).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Provides the main body and the coarse, grainy texture of the cake.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the cake holds its shape with the cornmeal.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and, when whipped, lift that helps the cake rise and stay light.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise in the oven.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and browned at the edges.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and cornmeal into a pourable batter.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold trapped air that gives the cake its lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the cake bakes up dense instead of light.
“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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