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Rhode Island Pancakes

A pancake made with Indian meal and rye flour, sweetened with molasses and baked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rhode Island Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the Indian meal and rye flour.

  2. Add the molasses, baking soda, salt, and beaten eggs.

  3. Stir in enough new milk to create a stiff batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard and fry for about 10 minutes, turning until golden brown.

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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the pancakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep flavor to the pancakes.
Indian meal
Provides the main body and grainy texture of the pancakes.
Rye flour
Adds structure and a nutty, earthy flavor to the batter.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to brown the pancakes quickly; if it is too cool, the batter soaks up fat and turns greasy, while the centers stay soft if the pancakes are not turned at the right time to cook through.

“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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