Name: Macaroni Pancakes
Ingredients: 2 oz. macaroni; ½ pint milk; 3 eggs; 3 oz. Allinson fine wheatmeal; sugar to taste; grated rind of 1 lemon; butter; 1 whole lemon

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 ↓

Macaroni Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

Boil the macaroni in water until soft, then drain and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the eggs, wheatmeal, and milk to create a batter.
Add the lemon rind, sugar, and macaroni to the batter and mix well.

Fry and serve

Fry pancakes using a small piece of butter (about the size of a walnut) for each pancake.
Sift sugar over the pancakes and serve hot with slices of lemon.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the bulk of each pancake and gives it a soft, chewy body.
Eggs: Bind the batter and set during frying to hold the pancakes together.
Allinson fine wheatmeal: Provides the flour structure that thickens the batter and supports the pancake.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Butter: Fat for frying that browns the outside of each pancake and adds richness.