Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Mix the sifted dry ingredients.
Beat the egg.
Mix the beaten egg with half the milk.
Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients.
Add more milk to reach a pourable consistency.
Stir in the melted butter.
Beat the batter well.
Cook and serve
Heat a griddle until very hot.
Grease the griddle with a piece of fat or salt pork.
Pour the batter by spoonfuls onto the griddle.
Cook until the underside is brown and bubbles form on top.
Turn the cake and brown the other side.
Serve immediately with butter, syrup, or sugar.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cakes as its starch sets during cooking.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and become light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and sets the batter's pourable consistency, adding moisture and browning.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
The step that matters
Heat the griddle until very hot before pouring the batter. A very hot surface sets the outside of each cake quickly, so it browns and holds its shape while the baking powder lifts the batter. A cool griddle lets the cakes spread, soak up grease, and turn out flat and pale.
“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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