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French Pancakes

A batter of eggs, butter, sugar, flour, and milk baked into pancakes, served with lemon, sugar, preserves or marmalade.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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French Pancakes

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 ↓

French Pancakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly in a bowl.

  2. Add the softened butter and cream it together with the eggs.

  3. Stir in the sugar and flour until well mixed.

  4. Gradually add the milk while continuing to stir and beat the mixture for a few minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter onto buttered plates and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  2. Serve with a cut lemon and sifted sugar, or layer pancakes with preserves or marmalade.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and give the pancakes their structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps browning on the buttered plates.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to browning at the edges.
Flour
Provides the starch that sets with the eggs to form the pancake's body.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that thins the batter and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk while stirring and beating. Adding milk slowly while beating keeps the batter smooth and evenly combined, so lumps of flour do not form and the batter bakes into an even, tender pancake.

“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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