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Pikelets

Pikelets are small pancakes made from flour, eggs, milk, salt, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Pikelets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the milk and eggs together in a bowl.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and barm; stir until well combined.

  3. Let the batter rise until it has doubled in size.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a bakestone or griddle until hot.

  2. Pour the batter onto the hot surface in hoops or freeform.

  3. When bubbles form on the top, flip the pikelets.

  4. Bake 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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter once it is mixed with liquid.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the pikelets hold together while cooking.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives a soft, tender texture.
New barm
Live yeast culture that makes the batter rise and gives it an airy texture.

The step that matters

Flipping the pikelets. Flip only when bubbles have formed on the top and the surface has set. Flipping too early tears the batter, while waiting too long can overcook the underside and dry the pikelets.

“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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