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Bicheb Pancakes

A pancake batter made with eggs, cream, sugar, sherry, nutmeg, and flour, fried thin and served with sifted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bicheb Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Ensure the eggs are extremely fresh.

  2. Beat the eggs well, then strain them.

  3. Mix the strained eggs with the cream, sugar, sherry, nutmeg, and enough flour to make a batter similar to ordinary pancake batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and wipe it with a clean cloth.

  2. Pour enough batter to make a thin pancake.

  3. Fry for about 2 minutes.

  4. Stack the pancakes, sprinkling sifted sugar between each one.

  5. Serve.

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the thin pancakes as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the batter a tender texture.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pancakes brown lightly as they fry.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a distinctive aroma to the batter.
Flour
Gives the batter body so it holds together as a pancake.

The step that matters

Pour enough batter to make a thin pancake. Too much batter makes a thick, doughy pancake that cooks unevenly and may stay raw in the middle. A thin layer sets quickly and evenly in the pan.

“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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