Name: Indian Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 3 cups sifted Indian meal; 1 cup rye meal; Graham or wheat flour (as needed); 2 tablespoons yeast; ¼ teaspoon salt; nearly 1 quart water; 1 teaspoon dissolved baking soda; a little molasses (if using Graham flour)

Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Indian Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Combine Indian meal, rye meal, and enough Graham or wheat flour in a bowl.
Add yeast and salt.
Pour in nearly 1 quart of water and mix well.
Cover and let it sit overnight.

Finish and cook

Stir in 1 teaspoon of dissolved baking soda.
If using Graham flour, add a little molasses to the mixture.
Cook on a hot 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.

Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal: Forms the main body of the cakes, giving them their coarse, hearty structure.
Rye meal: Adds a deeper, slightly tangy flavour and helps give the batter body.
Yeast: Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that makes the cakes light and airy.
Baking soda: Reacts with the fermented batter to add extra lift and help the cakes brown.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and a rich, dark flavour when Graham flour is used.

The step that matters

Letting the batter sit overnight. The yeast needs time to ferment the batter, which develops flavour and produces the gas that lightens the cakes. Rushing this step leaves the cakes dense and flat.

“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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Wheat Gruel6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Indian Griddle Cakes