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Rye Pancakes

A batter of rye meal, Indian meal, flour, eggs, molasses, milk, and leavening, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the rye meal, Indian meal, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, beat the eggs and combine with milk and molasses.

  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard and fry until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve warm with syrup.

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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Rye meal
Provides the main body and a distinct earthy flavor to the pancakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter hold together while frying.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid with the baking soda, helping the pancakes rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and helps browning during frying.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and gives the batter its liquid base.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown on both sides. The skillet needs to be hot enough for the batter to set quickly, and the sugars in molasses brown easily, so heat that is too high scorches the outside before the center cooks through, while heat that is too low makes the pancakes greasy and pale.

“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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