Name: Griddle Cakes for Sunday Breakfast
Ingredients: 3 cups rich, sweet milk; 2-3 eggs, well beaten; 2 teaspoons baking powder; flour, as needed for consistency

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Griddle Cakes for Sunday Breakfast

Ingredients

3 cups rich, sweet milk
2-3 eggs, well beaten
2 teaspoons baking powder
flour, as needed for consistency

Directions

Make the batter

Soak stale bread in the milk until soft.
Stir in the beaten eggs and baking powder.
Add flour gradually until the batter reaches the right consistency.

Cook

Cook on a 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.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Stale bread (in the method): Soaks up the milk and softens, giving the batter body and a tender crumb.
Rich, sweet milk: Adds moisture and softens the bread, so the batter spreads and cooks evenly.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure, helping the pancakes hold together while cooking.
Baking powder: Releases gas when heated, helping the pancakes rise and stay light.
Flour: Thickens the batter and provides structure that sets during cooking.

The step that matters

Add flour gradually until the batter reaches the right consistency. Too much flour makes the batter thick and dense, producing tough, heavy pancakes. Adding it slowly lets you stop once the batter is pourable, keeping the pancakes light and tender.

“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.

Rice Gruel28 recipes

Peptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Griddle Cakes for Sunday Breakfast