Name: Breakfast Griddle-cakes
Ingredients: 1½ pints cornmeal; boiling water; 1 egg; 1 pint flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; buttermilk (enough to make a batter, not too thin); optional: 1 additional egg if using sour milk; optional: 2 teaspoons cream of tartar if using sweet milk or water

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Breakfast Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

1½ pints cornmeal
boiling water
1 egg
1 pint flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
buttermilk (enough to make a batter, not too thin)
optional: 1 additional egg if using sour milk
optional: 2 teaspoons cream of tartar if using sweet milk or water

Directions

Prepare the batter

Stir boiling water into cornmeal until it forms a stiff mush, then set aside to cool.
Add 1 egg, 1 pint of flour, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the cooled cornmeal mixture.
Mix in enough buttermilk to achieve a batter consistency that is not too thin.

Cook

Cook on a griddle like buckwheat cakes.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together674 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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: Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their grainy texture.
Flour: Adds gluten-forming structure so the cakes hold together when cooked.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the cakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
Buttermilk: Supplies moisture and acidity to hydrate the cornmeal and activate the baking soda.

The step that matters

Mix in enough buttermilk to achieve a batter consistency that is not too thin.. Cornmeal absorbs liquid slowly and keeps thickening as it rests, so a batter that starts too thin can cook into flat, fragile cakes. Adding buttermilk gradually lets you judge the consistency before the baking soda loses its lift.

“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.

More cornmeal griddle cakes recipes

Potato 4 See all 46 →

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Breakfast Griddle-cakes