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Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a batter-based griddle cake made with butter, milk, eggs, flour, yeast, baking soda, and tartaric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in the milk and let it cool.

  2. Beat the eggs until light and stir them into the milk mixture.

  3. Gradually add the sifted flour and mix well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Just before baking, dissolve the tartaric acid in a little water and add it to the batter.

  2. Cook on a griddle like buckwheat cakes, buttering them before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter as they set on the griddle.
Baking soda
Reacts with the tartaric acid to release gas, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
Tartaric acid
Acid that reacts with the baking soda to produce bubbles for rising and a lighter texture.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the batter together as the cakes set.
Milk
Supplies moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its body.

The step that matters

Adding the tartaric acid just before baking. Baking soda and tartaric acid react as soon as they meet liquid and begin releasing gas. If the acid is added long before the batter hits the griddle, much of the lift is lost, so the cakes come out flatter and denser.

“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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