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Barbara’s Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made from Indian meal, flour, eggs, milk, lard, molasses, and baking soda, baked on a greased griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barbara’s Griddle Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the mush

  1. Wet the Indian meal with boiling water to form a good mush.

  2. Cook in a double boiler for 1 hour, stirring often.

  3. Turn out the mush and beat it smooth.

  4. Do this the night before.

Make the batter

  1. In the morning, mix in the melted lard, molasses, eggs, and milk.

  2. Add the sifted flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat well.

Bake

  1. Bake on a greased 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Indian meal
Provides the main body and corn flavor of the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the cakes hold their shape when baked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to lighten the cakes and aid browning.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deeper color to the browned surface.
Milk
Hydrates the meal and flour and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Cook the mush fully before mixing the batter. Cornmeal starch must be fully gelatinized by long cooking in liquid; if the mush is undercooked, the cakes stay grainy and heavy. Stirring often in a double boiler prevents scorching and lumps.

“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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