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Pan Cakes

Pan Cakes are made with Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, baking soda, salt, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Pan Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine Indian meal, rye meal, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Gradually add milk until the batter reaches your desired consistency.

Cook

  1. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Rye + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Rye + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 as the cakes set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and browns the cakes.
Indian meal
Provides the main cornmeal body and structure of the cakes.
Rye meal
Adds earthy flavor and body, with some structure from its starch.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. Heat must be high enough to set the batter quickly and brown the sugars in the molasses, but not so high that the outside burns before the center cooks 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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