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Rose Pancakes

A pancake made with beetroot puree and served with jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rose Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, and salt until smooth.

  2. Boil the beetroot until tender, then puree it using a sieve or mortar.

  3. Mix the beetroot puree into the batter until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a skillet and fry the batter in the usual pancake manner until golden brown on both sides.

  2. Spread each pancake with bright-colored jam before serving.

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 + beetroottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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 + beetroottop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set when cooked.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the pancakes their body.
Milk
Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Red beetroot
Adds moisture, earthy sweetness and its characteristic deep color to the batter.

The step that matters

Frying the batter until golden brown on both sides. Beetroot adds moisture and sugars that brown quickly, so the pancakes can scorch on the outside before the centre sets. Moderate heat lets the batter cook through evenly.

Swap the beetroot

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour. 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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