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Corn-meal Griddle-cakes

A cornmeal batter griddle-cooked cake with butter, sugar, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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-meal Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine cornmeal, salt, butter, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour boiling water slowly into the mixture, stirring until moistened.

  3. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.

  4. Beat the eggs.

  5. Mix the beaten eggs into the dough until well combined.

  6. Add cold milk, one teaspoon at a time, until the mixture is smooth.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook on a griddle until both sides are golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, one griddleful at a time.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cornmeal
Forms the body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set on the griddle.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
Cold milk
Loosens the batter to a smooth consistency and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water. Pouring the water in slowly and stirring until moistened lets the cornmeal hydrate evenly, so the batter does not clump or turn gummy before it rests.

“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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