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Breakfast

Perfect Pancakes

A batter of flour, salt, sugar, sour milk, baking soda, and egg cooked on a greased griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Perfect Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, salt, and sugar.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and gradually add it to the flour mixture, beating until smooth.

  3. Add the well-beaten egg and mix well.

Cook

  1. Heat an iron griddle and lightly grease it with Cottolene.

  2. Pour batter onto the griddle and let it spread until quite thin.

  3. Cook 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk's acid to produce gas, helping the pancakes rise and turn light.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds a slight tang while keeping the batter moist.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the pancakes.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the pancakes cook.

The step that matters

Beating the baking soda into the sour milk and flour. Baking soda needs acid to release carbon dioxide, so it should be dissolved in the sour milk and mixed in promptly. Gradual addition and smooth beating spread the gas evenly so the batter rises consistently rather than in pockets.

“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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