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 ↓
Oat Meal Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Moisten the cooked oat meal with warm water.
Stir in the sour milk and dissolved baking soda.
Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Gradually incorporate the flour until the batter is easy to turn.
Add salt and mix until combined.
Cook
Cook on a griddle or skillet until golden brown on both sides.
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.
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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
- Cooked oat meal
- Provides the bulk and tender, hearty body of the cakes.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lighten the batter and add tang.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds structure so the batter holds together and can be turned.
The step that matters
Gradually incorporate the flour until the batter is easy to turn. Adding flour gradually lets you control the batter's consistency. Too much flour makes the cakes dense and tough, while too little leaves them too wet to hold their shape on the griddle.
“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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