Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine sour milk with enough flour to create a thick batter.
Let the batter sit overnight or up to 24 hours.
Mix and bake
Add 2 beaten eggs, salt, and baking soda dissolved in warm water. Mix well.
Bake immediately.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the thick batter together as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the cakes set and hold together.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
The step that matters
Bake immediately. Once baking soda meets the acid in the sour milk, it starts releasing gas. Baking right after mixing traps that gas in the batter before it escapes, so the cakes rise properly.
“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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