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Dessert

Corn-drops

A baked cornmeal cake made with milk, eggs, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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-drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

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

  1. Set the pint of milk over boiling water.

  2. When boiling, stir in the cornmeal mixed with ½ cup cold milk, salt, and melted butter.

  3. Cook until the batter is like mush, then remove from heat.

  4. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  5. Add the yolks to the batter and mix well.

  6. Fold in the egg whites.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Whipped whites lighten the batter and help the drops rise and stay tender.
Cornmeal
Forms the thick mush that gives the drops their body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb while helping the drops brown.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and gives the batter its moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Whites are beaten to hold air, and folding gently keeps that air in the batter. Stirring hard would deflate them, leaving flatter, denser drops.

“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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