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 ↓
Indian Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine the milk, cornmeal, beaten eggs, flour, and salt, and mix well until smooth.
Cook
Preheat a griddle or pan over medium heat.
Pour batter onto the griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse grain body that gives the cakes their structure and texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help the cakes hold together while cooking.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and supplies moisture for a tender batter.
- Flour
- Adds starch that helps the cakes set and hold their shape.
The step that matters
Cooking the cakes until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction while the centre cooks through. Heat that is too high browns the outside before the batter sets, leaving it raw inside.
“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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