Name: Pancakes, with Bread-crumbs
Ingredients: 2 cups bread-crumbs; 1 cup flour or cornmeal; 1 egg; milk (enough to make a thin batter); 1 teaspoon baking powder (if using sweet milk); ½ teaspoon baking soda (if using sour milk); 1 tablespoon warm water (for dissolving baking soda)

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Pancakes, with Bread-crumbs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

2 cups bread-crumbs
1 cup flour or cornmeal
1 egg
milk (enough to make a thin batter)
1 teaspoon baking powder (if using sweet milk)
½ teaspoon baking soda (if using sour milk)
1 tablespoon warm water (for dissolving baking soda)

Directions

Soak the bread-crumbs, then drain them.
In a bowl, combine the soaked bread-crumbs, flour or cornmeal, egg, and enough milk to make a thin batter.
If using sweet milk, add baking powder; if using sour milk, dissolve baking soda in warm water and add it to the mixture.
Mix until smooth and 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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Bread-crumbs: Provide the bulk of the batter and a tender, moist crumb texture.
Flour or cornmeal: Adds body and structure so the batter holds together on the griddle.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps set the pancakes as they cook.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter to lighten the pancakes when used with sweet milk.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity of sour milk to lighten the pancakes.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides. A griddle that is not hot enough lets the batter spread and absorb moisture before it sets, giving pale, soggy pancakes. Browning comes from heat, so the surface needs to be hot before the batter goes on.

“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.

Rice Gruel28 recipes

Peptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Pancakes, with Bread-crumbs