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 ↓
Sweet Milk Batter Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until light, then add the sweet milk.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add to the egg mixture. Beat until smooth.
Cook
Cook on a soapstone griddle or an ordinary griddle with minimal grease.
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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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 richness and structure as they set when cooked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cakes rise and turn light and airy.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the batter, setting as the cakes cook.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its pourable texture.
The step that matters
Cook on a soapstone griddle or an ordinary griddle with minimal grease. Too much heat or too little grease can scorch the outside before the inside sets, and too much grease can make the cakes heavy. Keeping the griddle at a steady, moderate heat with light greasing helps the cakes brown evenly and cook through.
“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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