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Irish Griddle Cake

A batter of flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk is cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Irish Griddle Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Mix the baking soda with the buttermilk until smooth.

  3. Combine the buttermilk mixture with the flour to form a stiff paste.

  4. Roll out the paste until smooth.

Cook

  1. Cook on a griddle, flipping often to prevent burning.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough as its proteins and starch set during cooking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to produce gas, lightening the cake as it cooks.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda and tenderizes the dough.

The step that matters

Flipping often on the griddle. Sugars and proteins in the dough brown and char quickly on hot metal, so the surface can scorch before the centre cooks through. Turning the cake frequently spreads heat evenly and keeps the outside from burning.

“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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