Name: Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 6 ounces good dripping; 1 pound flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ pound dried currants; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 pinch nutmeg; milk (as needed for dough)

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

Rub the dripping into the flour.
Add the baking powder and mix thoroughly.
Work in the dried currants, salt, and nutmeg.
Make a light dough with milk.

Shape and bake

Roll out on a floured board and stamp into rounds with a small teacup.
Bake for 15 minutes on a griddle or in the oven.

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.

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.

Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,983 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Flour and milk 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

Dripping: Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, short texture.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the dough once mixed with milk.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cakes rise and lighten.
Dried currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cakes.