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Dessert

Raised Flannel-cakes

A yeast-leavened pancake made with milk, butter, eggs, and flour, baked on a greased griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Raised Flannel-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Scald the milk and add the butter; set aside to cool.

  2. When lukewarm, add the yeast (or yeast cake dissolved in ⅓ cup warm water) and salt; beat well.

  3. Cover and set in a warm place overnight.

  4. Beat the eggs separately.

  5. Add the yolks first, then the whites, to the batter and beat well.

  6. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Cook

  1. Bake on a hot, greased griddle.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Flour
Forms the batter's structure once the gluten network develops and sets during cooking.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, and the separately beaten whites lighten the batter.
Yeast
Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas bubbles that leaven the cakes.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and carries the batter's flavour and browning.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour.

The step that matters

Add the egg whites last and beat gently. Whites hold air that lightens the batter. Overbeating them after folding in deflates that air, so the cakes cook up flatter and denser than intended.

“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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