Name: Bran Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons bran; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ pint flour; 1½ cups buttermilk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 egg; ⅓ cup shortening; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon hot water

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk 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 ↓

Bran Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

Mix the bran, sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl.
Gradually stir in the buttermilk, beaten egg, melted shortening, and baking soda dissolved in hot water.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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: Provides starch and gluten that give the pancakes their structure.
Buttermilk: Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to release gas that makes the pancakes rise.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Shortening: Adds fat that keeps the pancakes tender and helps them brown.

“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.