Home › Griddle Cakes and Waffles › Rice Griddle Cakes
Rice Griddle Cakes
1 cup boiled rice 1 cup milk 2 teaspoons shortening 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg 1 cup flour 2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder Mix rice, milk, melted shortening, salt and well-beaten egg; stir in flour and baking powder which have been sifted together; mix well. Bake on hot greased griddle.
A short, plain formula from a baking powder company pamphlet; the only real variables are the state of the rice and the heat of the griddle.
- The rice matters mostUse plain boiled rice that is fully soft and cooled — leftover long-grain or medium-grain works well. Firm or undercooked grains stay gritty in the finished cake, since nothing in the batter will cook them further in two or three minutes on a griddle.
- Batter consistencyOne cup of flour to one cup of milk plus a cup of rice gives a thick, spoonable batter rather than a pourable one. Spread each portion with the back of the spoon; add milk a tablespoon at a time if the rice was dry.
- ShorteningHere this means a solid fat: a vegetable shortening such as Crisco, or lard. Melted butter or a neutral oil substitutes directly at 2 teaspoons.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons per cup of flour is generous by modern standards, where one to one and a half is more usual, though common in recipes of this type. A modern powder will substitute here. Cook fairly soon after mixing, as the first rise is already underway.
- Griddle heatThe recipe says only 'hot griddle': hot enough that a drop of water skitters rather than sits. These cakes are dense and want a moderate-high, steady heat — too hot and the outside colors before the center sets.
- GreasingA well-seasoned or nonstick pan needs only a wipe of fat. Cakes with rice in them stick more readily than plain batter, so do not skip it entirely.
- YieldDepends on how thickly the cakes are spread; a dozen or so of three inches, serving three or four. Good with syrup, but the salt-forward batter also takes savory treatment.
Rice griddle cakes belong to a large family of American cakes built on cooked leftovers — rice, hominy, oatmeal, stale bread — that stretched flour and used up what was in the pantry. They are often said to have been most common in rice-growing parts of the South, where boiled rice is generally assumed to have been a daily staple appearing at breakfast in one form or another; cookbooks of the nineteenth century print versions leavened with beaten egg alone or with yeast. This particular formula comes from a promotional cookbook issued by a baking powder manufacturer, a genre that flourished from the 1870s onward: the recipes are deliberately short, standardized to level cup and spoon measures, and written so that the leavening is named as a branded ingredient. That the rise is credited to chemical powder rather than to long beating or an overnight sponge is one suggestion of its date.