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Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a simple batter made with flour, milk, egg, baking powder, and salt, baked immediately.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg until light.

  2. Add the milk and mix well.

  3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, then add to the mixture.

  4. Mix just enough to combine all ingredients.

Cook

  1. Bake immediately.

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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure as its proteins and starch set during baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness, helping the cakes hold together.
Sweet milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, making the cakes rise and become light.

The step that matters

Mix just enough to combine all ingredients.. Stirring the batter too much develops gluten in the flour, which makes the cakes tough and dense instead of tender. Stop once the dry ingredients are just moistened, leaving a few small lumps.

“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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