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Buttermilk Griddle Cakes

A quick batter of buttermilk, flour, baking soda, salt, and egg cooked 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: 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 ↓

Buttermilk Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg, then add the buttermilk and salt, mixing well.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and stir into the mixture.

  3. Gradually add flour while stirring until the batter is thin enough to pour smoothly from a spoon.

Cook

  1. Beat the batter well and bake quickly 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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Buttermilk
Provides acidity and moisture, and reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, making the cakes rise and turn light.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the batter hold together as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the cakes their body once cooked.

The step that matters

Cook quickly on a hot, greased griddle. Batter that is cooked on a cool or ungreased surface sticks and spreads, and slow cooking lets the leavening gas escape before the starches set. A hot surface sets the cakes quickly while they stay light.

“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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