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Breakfast

OiWPORT Breakfast-cakes

A batter of dough, eggs, butter, sugar, baking soda, and milk is whisked, risen, and fried into small round cakes.

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 ↓

OiWPORT Breakfast-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and whip both to a light froth.

  2. Mix the whipped eggs into the dough.

  3. Gradually add melted butter, sugar, baking soda, and enough warm milk to achieve a batter consistency similar to buckwheat cakes.

  4. Beat the mixture well and let it rise until breakfast time.

Cook

  1. Heat and grease a griddle, then pour on the batter in small round cakes.

  2. Cook until light brown, similar to griddle cakes.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks add lightness and help the batter rise and set with a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the cakes rise and become airy.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cakes a tender texture and flavor.
Warm milk
Hydrates the dough and sets the batter consistency, while adding moisture to the cakes.

The step that matters

Cook until light brown on a greased, heated griddle. Too cool a griddle lets the cakes spread and absorb grease without browning, while too hot a surface browns the outside before the inside sets. Even heat and a light grease layer give even browning.

“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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