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 ↓
Corn Dodgers
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.
Make the batter
Scald the corn meal with boiling water to make a soft batter that drops easily from the spoon.
Bake
Grease your pans and heat them until they are hissing hot.
Pour the batter into the pans and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for twenty 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.
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 body of the cake, and scalding it softens the starch so the batter holds together.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Heating the pans until hissing hot. Preheated, greased pans start the batter cooking on contact, helping form a crisp, browned crust and preventing sticking.
“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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