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Sour Milk Griddle-cakes
2 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups sour milk 1 1/4 teaspoons soda 1 egg Mix and sift flour, salt, and soda; add sour milk, and egg well beaten. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased hot griddle; cook on one side. When puffed, full of bubbles, and cooked on edges, turn, and cook other side. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
A plain soda batter that depends on the acid in genuine sour milk to lift it. The substitution you make for that milk is the whole recipe.
- Sour milkThis means raw milk left to clabber until pleasantly tart and slightly thickened, not modern pasteurised milk that has spoiled — that only goes bitter and should be discarded. Use buttermilk cup for cup, or stir 2 tablespoons lemon juice or white vinegar into 2 cups whole milk and let it stand 10 minutes.
- The soda is the hinge1 1/4 teaspoons is a generous amount, calibrated to a strongly acidic milk. If your buttermilk is mild, hold back to a scant teaspoon; excess soda that finds no acid to react with leaves a soapy, faintly metallic aftertaste and a yellowish crumb.
- Mix late, cook soonThe lift begins the moment liquid meets soda. Combine only when the griddle is already hot and cook the batter within a few minutes; a bowl left to sit for half an hour will give flat cakes.
- Griddle heatMedium; on a modern electric griddle that is somewhere around 350-375F, though the recipe says only 'hot'. A drop of water should skitter and vanish rather than sit and steam. Grease lightly with butter or oil wiped on with a cloth — pooled fat fries the edges before the centre sets.
- Reading the cakeThe cues given are the reliable ones: puffed surface, bubbles broken open, edges looking dry and matte. That is usually 2 to 3 minutes on the first side and about half that on the second.
- Batter consistencyThe batter may come out thinner than you expect. Aim for something that drops thickly from a spoon; add a spoonful or two more flour if it runs flat on the griddle.
- YieldRoughly 16 to 20 spoon-dropped cakes, depending on size — enough for four at breakfast.