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Baked Pancake

A single-layer pancake baked in an oven, served with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓

Baked Pancake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until very light using a whisk.

  2. Add salt and flour, then gradually mix in the milk while beating continuously.

Bake

  1. Grease the bottom and sides of a cold frying pan with lard.

  2. Pour the egg batter into the prepared frying pan.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

  4. Transfer to a hot platter, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve immediately.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and flour 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

Eggs
Whipped eggs trap air and provide the structure that lifts the pancake as it bakes.
Flour
Provides starch and protein that set during baking to give the pancake its body.
Milk
Adds moisture that turns to steam in the oven, helping the pancake puff.
Lard
Fat that greases the pan and promotes browning on the pancake's surface.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into a cold, greased pan. The batter must be poured into the pan before it is put in the hot oven, so it starts in a cold pan and the batter's air and steam can lift it evenly as it heats. Letting the batter sit or rest too long can lose the air from the beaten eggs, reducing the puff.

“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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