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Dessert

Indian Meal Pound Cake

A pound cake made with cornmeal, wheat flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Indian Meal Pound Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift together the cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  2. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Grease a baking dish or pan thoroughly.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light, then add them to the butter and sugar mixture alternately with the dry ingredients and milk, mixing well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done, which may take a long 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift, helping the cake set and hold its crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake richness and a tender texture.
Granulated sugar
Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps create a fine, even crumb.
Wheat flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Yellow cornmeal
Adds coarser texture and a distinct corn flavor to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs and dry ingredients alternately. Adding the eggs and dry ingredients in portions, rather than all at once, helps keep the batter smooth and stable. Mixing too vigorously after the flour goes in can develop gluten and make the cake tough.

“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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