Why it works: Egg and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Corn-meal Batter-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine cornmeal, egg, lard, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt.
Mix until smooth, then thin the batter with water to your desired consistency.
Cook
Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.
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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Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and grainy texture of the cakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure to the cakes as they set.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and reacts with the baking soda to aid rising.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. A griddle that is not hot enough lets the cakes absorb fat and steam rather than brown, leaving them pale and soggy. Good heat sets the outside quickly and develops browning, so the cakes flip cleanly and cook through.
“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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