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Graham Pancakes

A pancake made with Graham flour, wheat flour, sour milk, egg, salt, baking soda, served with butter and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Graham Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the Graham flour and wheat flour.

  2. Add enough sour milk to create a batter consistency.

  3. Whip the egg until light and add it to the mixture.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in warm water and add it along with the salt.

  5. Mix all ingredients well.

Cook and serve

  1. Bake on a hot griddle and serve immediately with butter and syrup.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Egg
Adds structure and richness, and when whipped light it helps the pancakes rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to release gas, helping the pancakes rise and brown.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the batter.
Graham flour
Provides the main body and a coarse, nutty texture of the pancake.

The step that matters

Bake on a hot griddle. A griddle that is too cool lets the batter spread and soak up fat without setting, while a properly hot surface sets the outside quickly so the pancake rises and browns evenly.

“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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