Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs and stir them into the milk.
Mix some flour with a little milk, then gradually add the rest of the milk.
Add the beaten ginger and salt, and stir the mixture together.
Cook and serve
Pour a ladleful of batter into a heated pan, moving it to spread evenly.
Shake the pan, and when one side is browned, flip it to cook the other side.
Drain off excess fat before serving.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,519 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Add structure and richness, and help the batter set as it cooks.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so it holds together and cooks into a sturdy pancake.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that loosens the batter and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Pour and spread the batter in a heated pan. Batter poured into a cold pan spreads unevenly and sticks, while a hot pan sets the surface quickly. Moving the pan spreads the batter into a thin, even layer that cooks through at the same rate.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour. 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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