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Breakfast

English Pancakes

A thin batter of flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, sugar, milk, and cream cooked in butter to make pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

English Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar.

  3. Dilute the egg mixture with the milk and cream.

  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients to make a thin batter.

Cook the pancakes

  1. Heat a frying pan and add melted butter.

  2. Pour enough batter to cover the pan and cook until golden brown on both sides.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the thin batter together as it cooks.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the pancakes set as they cook.
Milk
Thins the batter and adds moisture to the pancakes.
Heavy cream
Adds fat, making the pancakes richer and more tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas that gives the pancakes a light, lifted texture.

The step that matters

Pour enough batter to cover the pan and cook until golden brown on both sides. Too much batter makes thick, doughy pancakes, while cooking on too low heat stops browning. Browning on both sides comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs steady heat and a dry surface.

“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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