Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Bread Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Soak and strain
Soak the crumbled stale bread in sweet milk overnight.
Strain the mixture through a colander the next morning.
Mix and cook
Add the beaten eggs, flour, salt, and baking powder to the strained mixture.
Mix well and bake on a griddle.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Soaks up the milk and gives the batter body and a soft crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Moistens the bread and provides the liquid that makes the batter pourable.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set with heat.
- Flour
- Adds starch that thickens the batter and helps the cakes hold their shape.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when wet and heated, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Bake on the griddle right after mixing. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid, so the batter loses lift if it waits. Cooking promptly keeps the rise, and the eggs and starch set as the heat firms the cakes.
“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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