Name: Whole Wheat Batter Cakes
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2⅓ cups sour milk; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 cups whole wheat flour; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ cup white flour; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons melted butter

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the egg until light, then add the sour milk.
Sift together the whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, beating hard for one minute.
If the batter seems stiff, a thicker batter will yield better results.

Cook

Bake on a lightly greased griddle or soapstone 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.

Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter 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: Bind the batter and add richness and moisture to the cakes.
Sour milk: Supplies acidity that reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise and stay tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking to add lift and an even, open crumb.
Whole wheat flour: Provides the main structure and a nutty, hearty flavor.
Melted butter: Adds fat for tenderness, moisture, and a richer flavor and browning.

The step that matters

Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Once wet and dry ingredients meet, gluten begins to form, and prolonged beating makes cakes tough. The leavening reaction also starts right away, so the batter should be cooked promptly after mixing.

“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.

Wheat Muffins48 recipes

Whole Wheat Muffins12 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

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Whole Wheat Batter Cakes