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Dessert

Pink Pancakes

A pancake made from beetroot pulp mixed with egg yolks, flour, cream, sugar, nutmeg, and brandy, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pink Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beetroot

  1. Boil the beetroot until very tender, then peel and slice it thinly.

  2. Pound the beetroot to a pulp in a mortar.

Make the batter

  1. Add the egg yolks, flour, cream, powdered sugar, nutmeg, and brandy to the beetroot pulp. Mix everything into a smooth batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan and pour in the batter to fry the pancakes.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with sweetmeats.

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. Beetroot + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beetroot + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red beetroot
Provides the main bulk, earthy flavour and the pink colour of the pancakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and bind the batter, helping it set when fried.
Flour
Gives the batter body so the pancakes hold together while frying.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, making the batter tender and smooth.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pancakes brown lightly in the pan.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol evaporates during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the pancakes. The batter is loose and rich in sugar and yolks, so it can scorch on the outside before the centre sets. Medium heat in enough lard lets the pancakes cook through and brown evenly.

Swap the beetroot

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Beetrootthe original

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