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Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a batter-based dish made with Indian meal, wheat flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and baking powder, then fried on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the salt with the Indian meal.

  2. Gradually stir in the boiling water until smooth.

  3. Rest the bowl on the stove.

  4. Stir the mixture to keep it boiling.

  5. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes.

  6. Beat the eggs.

  7. Stir in the milk.

  8. Sift in the baking powder (or soda and cream of tartar) with the flour.

  9. Mix the batter well.

  10. Add the eggs last.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a well-greased griddle until very hot.

  2. Fry the batter like griddle cakes.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Provides the main body and corn flavour of the cakes.
Wheat flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together while frying.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and set when cooked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and turn light.
Milk
Moistens the batter and adds softness and browning through milk sugars.

The step that matters

Stir the boiling water into the meal until smooth. Pouring boiling water over cornmeal gelatinises its starch, which thickens the batter and softens the grain. Adding it gradually and stirring until smooth prevents lumps and uneven cooking.

“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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