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Dessert

Baked Johnny Cake

A baked cornmeal cake made with molasses, cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and optional egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Johnny Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the molasses, salt, and dissolved baking soda.

  3. Add the cold water, cornmeal, and flour to the mixture.

  4. If using, beat in the egg until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,879 recipes

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 bulk of the batter and gives the cake its coarse, crumbly texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to produce gas, helping the cake rise and lighten.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together after baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water before mixing. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the molasses. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and bitter spots in the cake.

“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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