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Bannock

A simple griddle‑baked bread made with meal, flour, molasses, and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bannock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the meal, flour, salt, ginger, and molasses in a bowl.

  2. Add enough buttermilk or sour milk to form a batter.

  3. Stir in the baking soda just before baking.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the batter onto a hot greased griddle.

  2. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Meal
Provides the coarse, grainy body and the characteristic texture of the bannock.
Flour
Gives structure to the batter so the bannock holds together when cooked.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep color that helps browning on the griddle.
Buttermilk or sour milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the buttermilk or sour milk to release gas and lift the bannock.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda just before baking. Baking soda starts reacting with the acidic liquid as soon as it is mixed in, releasing gas that lifts the batter. If it sits too long before cooking, much of that lift is lost, so the bannock comes out flatter and denser.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, buttermilk):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, buttermilk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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