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 ↓
Graham Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mix the brown flour, white flour, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, combine the sour or buttermilk, lard, and beaten eggs.
If using sweet milk, add baking powder to the mixture.
Mix and bake
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake immediately until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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
- Brown flour
- Provides the structure and the nutty, coarse texture of the cake.
- White flour
- Adds structure and a lighter crumb alongside the brown flour.
- Sour or buttermilk
- Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and a moist crumb.
The step that matters
Bake immediately after mixing. Baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk as soon as the wet and dry ingredients meet. Waiting lets the gas escape before the batter sets, so the cake rises less and can turn out flat and dense.
“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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