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Corn-meal Flapjacks

A batter of sour or buttermilk, eggs, salt, baking soda, molasses, lard, flour, and cornmeal cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn-meal Flapjacks

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine sour or buttermilk, beaten eggs, salt, and dissolved baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Stir in molasses and melted lard.

  3. Add flour and enough cornmeal to create a batter slightly thicker than flannel cakes.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 flapjacks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Sour or buttermilk
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and tang.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color that aids browning.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown and release from the griddle.
Flour
Provides gluten and starch that give the flapjacks their body and structure.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. A griddle that is too cool lets the batter spread and absorb grease before the surface sets. A properly hot surface sets the outside quickly, producing browning and a cake that holds its shape.

“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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