Name: Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 1 quart buttermilk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon baking soda; 1 cup Indian meal; 6 cups wheat flour

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, salt, and baking soda.
Add Indian meal and wheat flour, then beat well until smooth.
Cook on a preheated griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buttermilk + wheattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk: Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter and adds tang.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to release gas, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
Wheat flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the cakes their body and structure.
Indian meal: Adds cornmeal texture and a grainy bite to the batter.

“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.