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Dessert

Flannel Cakes Without Eggs

Eggless flannel cakes made with flour, cornmeal, yeast, milk, molasses, and shortening, baked on a hot griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Flannel Cakes Without Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, and salt.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and mix with the warmed milk.

  3. Combine the milk mixture with the dry ingredients and beat for 3 minutes.

Rise and finish

  1. Cover and let rise overnight.

  2. In the morning, add molasses and melted shortening, then whip for 3 minutes.

  3. Bake on a hot griddle until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

White flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the cakes together.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarser, grainy texture and a slightly firmer crumb.
Yeast
Ferments overnight, producing gas that leavens the batter and gives it an airy texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor that aids browning.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Overnight rise. The yeast needs enough time in a covered, warm batter to produce gas and develop flavor. An underproofed batter gives dense cakes, so the rise should be allowed to finish before cooking.

“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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