Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix corn flour, baking powder, and white flour.
Gradually add water to form a thick batter and stir in a pinch of salt.
Cook the cakes
Heat a griddle and grease it lightly with butter or olive oil using a paper.
Pour ½ teacup of batter onto the center of the hot griddle to form a thin, round cake.
Cook until light brown on both sides, then place on a hot plate.
Spread with butter, honey, or treacle, or sprinkle with sugar, and stack the cakes as they are done.
Serve hot.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Corn flour
- Forms the main body of the cakes, giving them a soft, tender structure.
- White flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the thin cakes hold together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the batter rises and lightens slightly.
The step that matters
Pour the batter onto the hot griddle. A properly heated, lightly greased griddle sets the cake's surface quickly, so it releases cleanly and browns evenly instead of sticking or tearing.
“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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