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Dessert

French Griddle-cakes

A batter of eggs, flour, butter, sugar, and milk is fried into pancakes and served with jelly and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

French Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat together six eggs and a pint sifted flour until smooth.

  2. Melt one ounce of butter and add to the batter, with one ounce of sugar and a cup of milk. Beat until smooth.

Cook and serve

  1. Put a tablespoonful at a time into a frying pan slightly greased, spreading the batter evenly over the surface by tipping the pan about, and fry to a light brown.

  2. Spread with jelly, roll up, dust with powdered sugar and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

378Calories
14 gProtein
25 gFat
25 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Bind the batter and set into the pancake's structure as they cook.
Flour (in the method)
Provides the body and structure that holds the pancake together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Milk
Supplies liquid that thins the batter so it spreads and cooks through.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Spreading each pancake thinly in the pan. Tipping the pan to spread a thin, even layer lets the batter cook through quickly and evenly. A thick or uneven spoonful sets unevenly, leaving it raw in the middle or scorched on the outside.

“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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