Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Batter Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
In another bowl, beat eggs and add milk and melted butter.
Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
Cook
Heat a skillet over medium heat and grease lightly.
Pour batter onto skillet and cook until bubbles form, then flip and cook until golden.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pancake together as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the pancakes rise and turn light.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the pancakes set and hold their shape.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its pourable, tender texture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the surface brown.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown to a golden color.
The step that matters
Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes pancakes tough and chewy. A few lumps are fine and help keep them tender.
“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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