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Dessert

Mush Griddle Cakes

Mush Griddle Cakes are batter cakes made from mush, eggs, sour milk, flour, and baking soda, cooked on a buttered griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mush Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the mush with the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the sour milk, salt, and baking soda, and mix well.

  3. Stir in enough flour to achieve a pancake-like consistency.

Cook

  1. Heat a well-buttered griddle over medium heat.

  2. Pour small amounts of batter onto the griddle and cook 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.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Mush
Adds body and moisture to the batter, giving the cakes a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set.
Sour milk
Provides liquid and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lighten the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk's acid to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
Flour
Provides structure and sets the batter to a pancake-like consistency.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the cakes cook through and set before the outside browns too far. Pouring small amounts keeps each cake thin enough to cook evenly.

“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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