Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 76,993 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the flour and sour milk or warm water to form a batter slightly thicker than for buckwheat cakes.
Add the beaten eggs, mixing the whites and yolks separately.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the batter.
Cook and serve
Bake on a hot griddle, making large, generous cakes.
Serve with Louisiana syrup.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + milktop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together76,993 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together104,138 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,465 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk share little aroma chemistry, yet 76,993 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Forms the batter structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
- Sour milk
- Adds acidity and tang, and reacts with the baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help the batter set as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that leavens the cakes.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the batter.. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly mixed so it reacts with the acid in the sour milk throughout the batter. Unevenly mixed soda leaves pockets of bitterness and uneven rising.
“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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