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Breakfast

Scotch Pancakes or Drop Scones

A batter of flour, egg, milk, sugar, salt, and baking powder cooked on a greased griddle to make pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Scotch Pancakes or Drop Scones

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg and gradually stir it into the milk.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, beating well until smooth.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a greased griddle or frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour spoonfuls of batter onto the griddle.

  3. Cook until brown on the bottom, then flip and cook until brown on the other side.

  4. Serve with butter when cooled.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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

Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the pancake together as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the pancakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during cooking.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts in the batter, making the pancakes rise and turn light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Cook until brown on the bottom before flipping. Flipping too early leaves the batter unset, so the pancake tears or stays raw in the middle. Wait for bubbles to set the top and a golden underside before turning.

“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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