Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Squash Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the mashed squash, sour milk, egg, salt, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour until the batter is thick enough to fry.
Fry and serve
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add a little oil.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the skillet and fry 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Squash
- Adds moisture and body, giving the cakes a soft, tender interior.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cakes rise and turn tender.
- Egg
- Binds the batter together and adds structure to the cakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Flour
- Provides structure and thickens the batter so it holds its shape in the pan.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Too much flour makes the batter stiff and dense, while too little leaves it runny and it will spread and fry unevenly. Adding flour in portions lets you stop when the batter is thick enough to hold a spoonful.
“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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