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Griddle Cakes

A quick batter of flour, salt, baking soda, sour milk, and eggs cooked on a griddle.

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

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 ↓

Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda.

  2. Add the sour milk and beaten eggs, stirring until just combined.

Cook the cakes

  1. Heat a griddle over medium heat and lightly grease it.

  2. Pour batter onto the griddle to form cakes and cook until bubbles form, then flip and cook until golden.

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.

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.

  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 of the batter as its proteins set during cooking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang to the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.

The step that matters

Stirring the batter until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to develop; overmixing makes the cakes tough and dense. Stop as soon as no dry flour streaks remain, leaving 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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