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Indian Griddle Cakes

A batter of cornmeal, flour, eggs, milk, and baking powder cooked on a hot griddle to make pancakes.

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 ↓

Indian Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift together the cornmeal, flour, salt, brown sugar, and baking powder.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.

Cook and serve

  1. Preheat a griddle over high heat and pour batter to form cakes.

  2. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve with molasses or maple syrup.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and the gritty, toothsome texture of the cakes.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the cakes hold together rather than crumbling.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and contributes moisture and softness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Cook until golden brown on both sides. Cooking over high heat lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction, giving flavor and color. Batter poured onto a griddle that is not hot enough spreads and cooks pale and doughy.

“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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