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Boston Brown Bread Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made from soaked Boston brown bread, milk, butter, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 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 ↓

Boston Brown Bread Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the bread

  1. Crumble enough Boston brown bread to make two cupfuls.

  2. Pour over it a cup of sweet milk and soak for an hour.

  3. Mash the soaked bread finely in the milk.

Make the batter

  1. Add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, an even teaspoonful of salt, and two well-beaten eggs.

  2. Sift a cupful of white flour and a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder into the mixture and beat well.

  3. Add a scant half cup of milk.

Make the second batter

  1. Put a quart of milk to warm.

  2. Melt a quarter of a pound of butter in the warm milk and stir in a teaspoonful of salt.

  3. When the mixture is cold, add a pint of sifted flour, four eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately.

  4. Just before baking, stir in two teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

Bake

  1. Bake as other griddle cakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
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. Milk + flourtop 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

White flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the batter its structure and body.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during cooking, adding structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the wet batter, making the griddle cakes rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Milk
Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and softens the batter.
Boston brown bread (in the method)
Adds moisture and a malty, sweet-toasted flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking powder just before baking. Baking powder begins releasing gas as soon as it gets wet. If the batter waits too long before cooking, that lift is lost, so the griddle cakes come out flat and dense.

“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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