Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift the flour, corn starch, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
Stir in the milk and melted butter.
Add the well-beaten eggs and mix until smooth.
Cook and serve
Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.
Serve with Karo syrup.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure of the batter once it sets on the griddle.
- Corn starch
- Makes the cakes more tender and lighter in texture than flour alone.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cakes rise and become airy.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients into a pourable batter and adds moisture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the cakes brown.
The step that matters
Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. If the griddle is not hot enough, the cakes absorb moisture and turn pale and dense. Too much heat browns the outside before the centre sets. Wait for the griddle to be hot, then flip once bubbles form and the underside is golden.
“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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