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
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, beat the egg and combine with milk and melted butter.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Cook the cakes
Heat a griddle over medium heat and lightly grease it.
Pour ¼ cup of batter for each cake onto the griddle.
Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip and cook until golden brown.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 that holds the cakes together as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cakes rise and become light.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping the batter set as it cooks.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid body and tenderness.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for flavour and a tender crumb, and helps browning on the griddle.
The step that matters
Stir the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the cakes tough and chewy. A few lumps are fine and keep the texture tender.
“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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