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Graham Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made with Indian meal, Graham flour, yeast, molasses, and butter, baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Graham Griddle Cakes

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 ↓

Graham Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the Indian meal, warm water, and cold milk.

  2. Mix in the Graham flour to create a light batter.

  3. Add the dissolved yeast and molasses, then mix well.

  4. Cover with a towel and let it rest overnight.

Finish and cook

  1. In the morning, add the white flour, salt, melted butter, and baking soda.

  2. Add water if necessary to achieve a light batter.

  3. Cook on a griddle, as with 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.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Indian meal
Gives the cakes their coarse, grainy body and texture.
Graham flour
Adds structure and a nutty, wholesome flavour to the batter.
Compressed yeast
Ferments the overnight batter, creating bubbles that lighten the cakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour, and feeds the yeast.
Baking soda
Reacts with the fermented batter to help the cakes rise and brown.

The step that matters

Let the batter rest overnight. The yeast needs time to ferment the batter, which develops flavour and an airy texture. Resting too briefly leaves the cakes dense and flat.

“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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