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Dessert

French Pancakes

A batter of flour, milk, eggs, and spices fried into pancakes, served with sugar, cinnamon, and orange.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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French Pancakes

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

French Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, nutmeg, and cream or milk until well combined.

  2. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl, then add to the flour mixture and beat for 10 minutes until smooth and light.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a small amount of lard or butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour in enough batter to just cover the bottom of the pan and fry until golden brown.

  3. Serve hot with sifted sugar, pounded cinnamon, and Seville orange on the side.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter so the pancakes hold together when fried.
Eggs
Bind the batter and, when beaten, add lightness and structure to the pancakes.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter to a pourable consistency.
Lard or butter
Fat in the pan that conducts heat and helps the pancakes brown golden.

The step that matters

Pour in enough batter to just cover the bottom of the pan. A thin layer cooks quickly and evenly, so the pancake sets and browns before it tears or becomes dense. A thick pour cooks unevenly and is harder to flip.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, nutmeg, cream, egg, butter, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, nutmeg, cream, egg, butter, sugar, cinnamon. 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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