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Pancakes

A batter of eggs, flour, milk, and optional ginger and brandy, fried in butter or lard and sprinkled with sugar.

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

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 ↓

Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and egg whites with salt until well combined.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture is stiff and smooth.

  3. Stir in enough new milk to achieve a proper consistency.

  4. Add ginger and brandy if desired.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter or lard in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour a small amount of batter into the pan and fry until light brown on both sides.

  3. Sprinkle sugar on top before serving.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 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. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and help bind the batter smoothly.
Egg whites
Add air and lightness, helping the pancakes rise and stay tender.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter sets and holds its shape when fried.
New milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to the right consistency.

The step that matters

Frying over medium heat. Too hot and the outside browns before the inside cooks; too cool and the pancake absorbs fat and turns greasy. Medium heat lets it cook through and brown evenly on both sides.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, brandy, butter, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, brandy, butter, sugar. 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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