Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Breakfast Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the milk, eggs, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is thick enough to roll out thinly.
Roll out the dough and cut it into squares.
Fry and serve
Fry the squares quickly in hot lard until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Milk and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with baking soda to produce gas, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to leaven the dough, creating lift.
- Flour
- Provides the body and structure that lets the dough be rolled out thinly.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and tenderness to the dough.
The step that matters
Fry the squares quickly in hot lard. Frying in hot fat sets the outside fast and browns it before the inside dries out. Fat that is not hot enough soaks in, leaving greasy, pale cakes.
“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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