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Buckwheat Pancakes with Maple Syrup

A simple buckwheat pancake recipe served with maple syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Buckwheat Pancakes with Maple Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the buckwheat flour and milk until smooth.

  2. Add the egg and melted butter, and stir until combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour ¼ cup of batter onto the skillet for each pancake.

  3. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip and cook until golden brown.

  4. Serve warm with maple syrup.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Buckwheat flour
Provides the main structure and a nutty, earthy flavour in the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps the pancakes hold together while cooking.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture so the batter pours smoothly.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness and helps the pancakes brown.

The step that matters

Flipping the pancakes. Flip only after bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set. Flipping too early tears the pancake, because the batter has not yet firmed enough to hold its shape.

Swap the buckwheat

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, butter, maple syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Buckwheatthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, butter, maple syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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