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 ↓
Corn-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Sprinkle the cornmeal into the hot milk and remove from heat.
Add butter and salt while the milk is hot.
Beat the yolks and mix them into the cornmeal mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.
Bake
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C) and thoroughly butter the pans or one large pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or more, depending on the size of the pans.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise and set in the oven.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the cake, giving it its structure as the starch sets when baked.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture, softening the grains into a smooth batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only if they are beaten properly and folded gently. Stirring them in hard deflates the batter, leaving a dense cake instead of a light, risen one.
“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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