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French Pancake

A light pancake made with eggs, flour, salt, cold water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Pancake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, stir the egg yolks with the salt and flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the cold water and mix well.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Cook and bake

  1. Heat a pan and add the butter; let it melt.

  2. Pour in the pancake batter and cook slowly and evenly on one side.

  3. Finish baking in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Yolks thicken and enrich the batter, while whipped whites add lift and a light, airy texture.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter sets into a sturdy pancake once cooked.
Cold water
Thins the batter to a pourable consistency, adding moisture that turns to steam while cooking.
Butter
Greases the pan and adds richness and flavor, helping the pancake brown gently.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only when whipped; vigorous stirring deflates them, losing the lift that makes the pancake light and airy.

“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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