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Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a batter-based dish made with buttermilk, eggs, flour, baking soda, and salt, folded with beaten egg whites and cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine buttermilk, baking soda, and egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Add salt and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  3. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Drop a spoonful of batter onto a griddle.

  2. Add some beaten egg whites on top of the batter.

  3. Cover with more batter.

  4. Cook until light brown.

  5. Flip and cook the other side.

  6. Serve warm with melted butter poured over the top.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Buttermilk + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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

Buttermilk
Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter and adds tangy flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, helping the cakes rise.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites give the cakes a light, airy texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only while whipped, so folding them in gently keeps the batter light. Stirring vigorously knocks out the air and leaves the cakes 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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