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Sour-milk Oakes

Griddle cakes made from buttermilk and flour, dropped in spoonfuls onto a hot griddle and cooked on both sides.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Sour-milk Oakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Preheat your griddle to a high heat.

  2. In a bowl, combine the buttermilk and flour until smooth.

Cook the cakes

  1. Drop the batter in large, even spoonfuls onto the hot griddle.

  2. Cook until the bottom is golden brown.

  3. Ensure each cake is fully cooked before flipping.

  4. Flip to cook the other side.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 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

Buttermilk
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity gives the cakes a tender crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it sets on the griddle.

The step that matters

Ensure each cake is fully cooked before flipping. Heat sets the batter from the bottom up. Flipping too early can tear a cake that has not yet firmed, and the center may stay wet and raw.

“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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