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Graham Griddle Cakes

A griddle cake made with graham flour, cornmeal, sour buttermilk, butter, baking soda, salt, sugar, optional eggs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Graham Griddle Cakes

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk 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 ↓

Graham Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix graham flour and cornmeal.

  2. Stir in sour buttermilk and melted butter.

  3. Add baking soda, salt, and sugar.

  4. If the batter is sticky, the milk may be too sour; adjust with eggs or water as needed.

Cook

  1. Cook on a preheated 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Sour buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds tang.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour buttermilk to produce carbon dioxide, helping the cakes rise.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk structure and the nutty, coarse texture of the cakes.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a grainy texture that holds the cakes together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavor, and helps browning on the griddle.

The step that matters

Adjust the batter consistency. Sour milk and flours vary in how much liquid they absorb. A sticky batter that is too wet can spread and cook unevenly, so eggs or water are used to bring it to a workable thickness.

“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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