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Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a batter of milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt, baked on a griddle or in waffle irons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately until foamy.

  2. Stir the flour into the egg yolks, then gradually add the baking powder and milk or cream.

  3. Mix well and let the batter rise for 3 to 4 hours.

Cook

  1. For griddle cakes, use a thinner batter; for waffles, make it thicker.

  2. Cook on a griddle or in waffle irons 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they add air and lightness to the batter.
Egg yolks
They add richness and help bind the batter.
Flour
Its proteins and starch form the structure that holds the cakes together.
Baking powder
It releases gas in the batter, causing the cakes to rise and become light.
Milk or cream
It hydrates the flour and adds moisture, keeping the cakes tender.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise. The rest gives the flour time to hydrate and lets the leavening work, which affects lightness. Skipping or shortening it can leave 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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