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Dessert

Indian-and-wheat Batter Cakes

A batter cake made with wheat flour, Indian flour, eggs, milk, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Indian-and-wheat Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the wheat flour and Indian flour.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and thick or sour milk.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the salt until well combined.

  5. The batter should be thin enough to spread on the griddle.

Cook

  1. Cook the cakes immediately after mixing.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to produce gas, helping the cakes rise and turn tender.
Thick or sour milk
Provides moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda for lift.
Indian flour
Adds body and texture to the batter alongside the wheat flour.

The step that matters

Cook the cakes immediately after mixing. Baking soda starts reacting with the acidic sour milk as soon as it is mixed in. The gas it releases is strongest early, so waiting lets the batter lose lift before it reaches the griddle.

“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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