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Graham Pancakes

A pancake made with wheat and Graham flour, buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and optional egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the wheat flour and Graham flour.

  2. Add buttermilk and baking soda, then stir in the salt and egg if using.

  3. Adjust the batter to be slightly thinner than regular pancake batter.

Cook

  1. Preheat a griddle over medium-high heat and pour the batter onto it.

  2. Cook until bubbles form, then flip and cook until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wheat + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttermilktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas, helping the pancakes rise and turn light.
Buttermilk or sour milk
Provides moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and adds tang.
Graham flour
Adds a coarse, nutty texture and wholegrain flavour to the batter.
Wheat flour
Supplies gluten and starch that give the pancakes their structure.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, binding the batter and helping it set.

The step that matters

Adjust the batter to be slightly thinner than regular pancake batter. Wholegrain flours like Graham absorb more liquid and form a thicker batter. A thinner batter spreads properly on the griddle and keeps the pancakes tender rather than dense and gummy.

“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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