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Flannel Cakes

Flannel Cakes are a batter-based cake made with flour, eggs, milk, water, and salt, then baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rising

  1. Mix ½ cup flour, ½ cup water, and ¼ teaspoon salt to make a rising.

  2. Let the rising rest for 5 to 6 hours.

Make the batter

  1. Beat 4 eggs until light.

  2. Stir in 2 cups warm milk and 3 cups flour.

  3. Add the rising and 1 teaspoon salt to the batter and mix well.

  4. Let the batter rise again for about 2 hours.

Bake

  1. Bake on a hot griddle slightly greased.

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 + 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. 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that forms the body of the cake.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the beaten batter hold air.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and softness and helps the batter spread on the griddle.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise again. The batter needs time for the fermented rising to work through it, which gives the cakes their light, airy texture. Rushing this step leaves the cakes 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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