Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Breakfast Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the milk, flour, eggs, and softened butter until smooth.
Add the cream of tartar and baking soda, and stir until well combined.
Cook the cakes
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add a little butter.
Pour batter onto the skillet to form cakes and cook until bubbles form on the surface.
Flip and cook until golden brown on both sides.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 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).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they set.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavor and tenderness, and browns the cakes in the skillet.
The step that matters
Cook over medium heat until bubbles form before flipping. Bubbles forming on the surface show the batter has set enough to hold its shape. Flipping too early can tear the cakes, while cooking too long on a hot pan can scorch the outside before the inside is cooked.
“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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