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White Bread Griddle Cakes

Griddle cakes made from stale bread soaked in sweet milk, then mixed with eggs, butter, flour, soda and sour milk and baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

White Bread Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the bread

  1. Chop as much stale bread as will measure two cupfuls.

  2. Put the bread into a bowl.

  3. Pour a cupful of sweet, rich milk over the bread.

  4. Let it soak for an hour.

Make the batter

  1. When ready to bake the cakes, mash the bread in the milk with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and two well-beaten eggs.

  3. Sift a cupful of white flour and an even teaspoonful of soda into the mixture.

  4. Stir well together.

  5. Add a cupful of sour milk.

  6. Bake on a griddle.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Stale bread (in the method)
Provides the body of the cakes, soaking up milk to form a soft, tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set on the griddle.
White flour
Gives the batter its main structure once it is mixed with the liquid.
Soda (in the method)
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the soda for lift and adds a slight tang.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tender texture and gentle browning on the griddle.

The step that matters

Sifting the soda into the mixture. Soda needs an acid, such as the sour milk, to release carbon dioxide for lift. Adding it evenly and mixing promptly keeps the cakes rising uniformly rather than dense or patchy.

“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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