Name: Bread-crumb Griddles
Ingredients: 2 cups stale bread crumbs; 1 pint sweet milk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon creamed butter; 2 eggs; 1 cup flour; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread-crumb Griddles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Warm the milk and pour it over the bread crumbs.
Let the mixture stand for 15 minutes, then beat in the egg yolks.
Add the salt and creamed butter, then gradually mix in the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
If the mixture is not stiff enough, cautiously add a little more flour.
Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

Cook and serve

Bake until golden, being careful not to stack the cakes when 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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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: Yolks enrich the batter and the whites, folded in, lighten its texture.
Bread crumbs: Soaked in milk, they provide the body and tender structure of the griddle cakes.
Flour: Adds structure, binding the batter so it holds its shape when cooked.
Baking soda: Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
Cream of tartar: Acidic partner to the baking soda, producing the gas that leavens the batter.
Creamed butter: Adds fat, contributing richness and tenderness to the cakes.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined. Whipped egg whites hold air that leavens the batter. Overmixing deflates them, leaving 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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Bread-crumb Griddles