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Split Pea Pancakes

A savory pancake made with split peas, eggs, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Split Pea Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the split peas overnight.

  2. In the morning, cook the peas in cold water until soft.

  3. Rub the cooked peas through a fine colander.

  4. While hot, stir in the butter, pepper, and salt.

Make and cook the batter

  1. Once cooled, beat in the eggs, milk, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  2. Beat the mixture well and fry on a griddle like pancakes.

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. 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Butter and flour 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

Split peas
Form the bulk of the batter, giving the pancakes body and a earthy, dense texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set the pancakes as they cook.
All-purpose flour
Adds starch that thickens the batter and gives the pancakes structure.
Milk
Loosens the batter and adds moisture for a tender interior.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lightens the pancakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, working with the baking soda to help the pancakes rise.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cooked peas through a fine colander. Pushing the peas through fine mesh removes lumps and skins, so the batter cooks smooth rather than grainy. Cooling before adding eggs keeps them from scrambling in the hot purée.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peasthe original

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