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Dessert

Cream-tartar Griddle-cakes

A quick batter of flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, milk, and optional butter cooked on a griddle.

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 ↓

Cream-tartar Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Cream the butter until light, then add the butter to the center of the flour mixture.

  3. Gradually add the warmed sweet milk and mix until smooth.

  4. Let the batter rest for a few minutes before cooking.

Cook the cakes

  1. Heat a griddle over medium heat.

  2. Pour batter to form cakes.

  3. Cook until bubbles form on the surface.

  4. Flip and cook until golden.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
Cream of tartar
Acidic, reacting with baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to make the cakes rise and become airy.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid body and tenderness.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Add the milk gradually and let the batter rest. Cream of tartar and baking soda start reacting once wet, so the batter should be mixed promptly and cooked after resting briefly. Adding milk gradually and mixing until smooth prevents lumps and uneven gas release, which keeps the cakes light.

“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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