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Delicate Corn-rolls

A quick, lightly leavened corn roll made with milk, wheat flour, cornmeal, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Delicate Corn-rolls

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 mush

  1. Scald 1 pint of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add butter, salt, and cornmeal mixed with a little cold milk. Stir and cook until thick like mush.

  3. Stir in the cold milk mixed with beaten egg yolks.

Make the batter

  1. Add sifted flour mixed with cream of tartar.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in 2 tablespoons of hot milk and add it.

  3. Finally, fold in beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Bake in gem pans at 400°F (200°C) for 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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, folded in last, lighten it for a tender rise.
Wheat flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the rolls their structure.
Cornmeal
Cooked into the mush, it adds corn flavor and a tender, moist crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the rolls.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that reacts with the baking soda, helping the rolls rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and scalded milk helps thicken the cornmeal mush.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while they are beaten; overmixing or deflating them removes that air, so the rolls rise less in the oven.

“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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