Skip to main content
Dessert

Flannel Cakes

Flannel Cakes are a batter made with butter, flour, salt, eggs, milk, and baking powder, baked on a griddle.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Flannel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Rub the butter into the flour and add the salt.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light, then add the milk and mix well.

  3. Stir the milk mixture into the flour until smooth.

  4. Beat the egg whites until light and fold them into the batter.

  5. Add the baking powder and mix gently.

Cook

  1. Bake on a hot griddle until golden brown.

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. Butter + milktop 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and beaten whites add air that helps the cakes rise and stay light.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, leavening the cakes so they rise and become airy.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter, setting firm as the cakes cook.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the cakes brown.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth batter and adds moisture to the cakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that leavens the batter. Stirring them in vigorously deflates that foam, so the cakes turn out flat and dense. Fold gently, and add the baking powder with light mixing as the record directs.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes