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Dessert

Persimmon Griddlecakes

A quick batter of persimmon pulp, egg, flour, baking powder, and soda, cooked on a griddle into thin cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Persimmon and flour share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 63 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Persimmon Griddlecakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine persimmon pulp, egg, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

  2. Add milk gradually until the mixture forms a thin batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a griddle and pour batter to form cakes.

  2. Cook until golden brown on both sides and serve warm.

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. Persimmon + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Persimmon + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

Persimmon pulp
Adds sweetness, moisture and a soft texture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and gives the cakes structure as they set.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the pancakes as it hydrates and sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the persimmon to lift the batter and aid browning.

The step that matters

Cooking until golden brown on both sides. Cooking over steady heat lets the sugars and proteins brown without burning the outside. Flipping too early can tear the cakes, while too little heat leaves the centres underdone and pale.

Swap the persimmon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Persimmonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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