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Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel cakes are a batter made with flour, salt, baking soda, egg yolks, buttermilk or clabber, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together.

  2. Add the egg yolks and enough buttermilk or clabber to achieve a proper consistency.

Finish and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter just before baking.

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 + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as the cakes cook.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk or clabber to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
Buttermilk or clabber
Supplies liquid for the batter and acid that activates the baking soda.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that makes the cakes light and airy.

The step that matters

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cakes lift. Stirring vigorously or folding too long deflates the foam, leaving dense, flat cakes. Fold just until no white streaks remain, and bake promptly.

“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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