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Indian Griddle Cake

A griddle cake made from cornmeal, flour, ginger, molasses, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Indian Griddle Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the Indian meal, flour, salt, ginger, molasses, and baking soda.

  2. Add sour milk gradually until you achieve a stiff batter.

Cook

  1. Preheat a griddle over medium heat.

  2. Pour batter onto the griddle and cook like buckwheat cakes 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. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk 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

Indian meal (cornmeal)
Forms the bulk of the cake and gives it its coarse, grainy texture.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the cakes hold together on the griddle.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Baking soda (sakeratus)
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Sour milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the batter and its acidity to activate the baking soda.

The step that matters

Adding the sour milk. Sour milk must be added gradually until the batter is stiff. Too much liquid makes the cakes spread and cook gummy, while too little leaves them dense and dry. The acid in the milk is needed to activate the baking soda.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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