Why it works: Wheat and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
Add enough cold water to create a thick batter and let it sit overnight.
In the morning, soak the bread or stale cake in water, then beat it thoroughly into the batter.
Stir in the baking soda.
Cook
Preheat a griddle and pour batter to form cakes, cooking 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.
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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Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together209 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wheat + sugartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,071 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
- Yeast
- Ferments overnight to leaven the batter and give the cakes an airy, slightly sour flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to release gas, adding extra lift and a tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main gluten structure that holds the cakes together.
- Whole wheat flour
- Adds a nutty flavor and a heartier, more absorbent texture to the batter.
- Bread or stale cake
- Soaked and beaten into the batter to add moisture and body.
The step that matters
Letting the batter sit overnight. The yeast needs many hours to ferment the flour and build flavor and lift. Cutting this short leaves the cakes dense and flat, so the batter should rest fully before cooking.
“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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