Skip to main content
Dessert

Quire of Paper Pancakes

A sweet, wine‑infused pancake made with flour, butter, sugar, milk, and eggs, served hot with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Quire of Paper Pancakes

four dozen pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat sixteen eggs.

  2. Add a quart of milk.

  3. Add a nutmeg.

  4. Add half a pound of flour.

  5. Add a pound of melted butter.

  6. Add a pound of sugar.

  7. Add two gills of wine.

  8. Ensure the flour is not in lumps.

Cook the pancakes

  1. Butter the pan for the first pancake.

  2. Run the batter as thin as possible.

  3. When coloured, the pancakes are done.

  4. Do not turn them.

Serve

  1. Lay them carefully in the dish.

  2. Sprinkle powdered sugar between each layer.

  3. Serve them up hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

792Calories
21 gProtein
22 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Pancakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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

Eggs (in the method)
Bind the batter and help set the thin pancakes into a firm structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin pancakes together once cooked.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that thins the batter and keeps the pancakes moist.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps keep the pancakes from sticking to the pan.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pancake surface brown as it cooks.

The step that matters

Do not turn them. The pancakes must set and colour on the pan before they are lifted. Turning too early can tear the thin batter, because the structure has not yet firmed up.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, milk, flour, butter, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, milk, flour, butter, sugar. 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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes