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Herb Pancakes

Herb pancakes rolled with ham or bacon and steamed in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Herb Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the herbs finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Add the herbs to the butter and cook until tender.

  4. Mix in the minced ham or bacon.

Roll and steam

  1. Spread a thin layer of the herb mixture over each pancake and roll them up.

  2. Place the rolled pancakes side by side in a saucepan.

  3. Add just enough stock to prevent burning, cover, and steam for 30 minutes.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Chive + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Chive + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Parsley + spinachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the herb flavour through the filling.
Green herbs
Provide the main aroma and colour of the filling.
Minced ham or bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a meaty texture to the filling.
Stock
Creates steam and moisture so the rolls heat through without burning.
Fried pancakes
Act as the wrapper that holds the filling in a neat roll.

The step that matters

Adding just enough stock. Too little stock lets the pancakes scorch on the base of the pan, while too much makes them soggy. Just enough liquid makes steam that gently heats the rolls through.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, chive, thyme, ham):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, chive, thyme, ham. 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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