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Stale Bread Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made from stale bread crumbs, flour, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Stale Bread Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Pour the hot milk or water over the bread crumbs.

  2. Add the flour, drippings, and salt; mix well.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then add the beaten egg yolk.

Cook

  1. Preheat the griddle until hot.

  2. Add the baking powder and the beaten egg white to the mixture.

  3. Cook each cake on one side until set and full of air bubbles, then turn once.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Bread crumbs
Soak up the liquid to form a soft, moist batter base.
Egg
Binds the batter, with the white helping to lighten the cakes.
Graham flour or all-purpose flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the cakes together.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, making the cakes rise and fill with air bubbles.
Drippings
Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Adding the baking powder and egg white. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid and heat, and whipped egg white traps air. Adding them late and cooking promptly keeps the rise from fading before the cakes set.

“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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