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Dessert

Swiss Pancakes

A fluffy apple pancake made with butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, milk, cream, nutmeg, cinnamon, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Swiss Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Gather the ingredients: one-half cupful butter, one-half cupful sugar, one and a half cupfuls flour, one teaspoonful baking powder, one large apple peeled, cored, and minced fine, one-half pint milk, one-half pint cream, one teaspoonful each extract of nutmeg and cinnamon, four eggs.

  2. Sift the flour with the baking powder; add the melted butter, sugar, beaten eggs, and the diluted milk, cream, and extracts.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt a piece of butter in a small round frying pan, pour about one-half cupful of butter into it, turn the pan so the batter covers it, and fry on one side only.

  2. Serve the pancakes piled on top of each other, with sugar strewn between the cakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

991Calories
28 gProtein
32 gFat
147 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

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

By Margaret Brown. 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 add structure and richness to the thin pancakes.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pancakes together as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the pancakes rise and stay light.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and keeps the pan surface from sticking.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and thins the batter to a pourable consistency.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the pancakes a tender, softer texture.

The step that matters

Fry on one side only. The batter must be spread thinly so it covers the pan, and the pan should be hot enough to set the surface. Cooking one side only leaves the top soft and custardy rather than browned.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk, cream, nutmeg, egg. 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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