Why it works: Milk and flour 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 Cream 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
Mix sour thick cream with baking soda until sweetened.
Stir in cornmeal until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pound cake.
Bake
Pour the mixture into floured pans, about 1 inch thick.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Milk and flour 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
- Sour thick cream
- Adds acidity and richness, and reacts with baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the mixture and gives the cake its structure and grainy texture.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cornmeal to the right thickness. The batter must reach the thickness of pound cake before baking. If it is too thin, the cake may be loose and sink; if too thick, it may bake dense and dry.
“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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