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Herb Pancakes

Herb pancakes rolled with a savory herb, onion, and bacon or ham mixture, then steamed in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Herb Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine herbs, onion, bacon or ham with butter in a pan.

  2. Cover and steam gently until tender.

Make and fill the pancakes

  1. Prepare pancake batter as usual.

  2. Spread the herb mixture on each pancake.

  3. Roll the pancakes up and place them side by side in a stewpan.

  4. Add just enough gravy to prevent burning.

  5. Steam for 1 hour.

  6. Alternatively, stir the herb mixture into the batter.

  7. Cook pancakes.

  8. Serve hot with gravy.

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. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mixed herbs
Provide the main aroma and savoury flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the herb flavour through the filling.
Bacon or ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a meaty texture to the filling.
Pancake batter
Forms the thin cooked wrapper that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Add just enough gravy to prevent burning. Too little liquid in the stewpan can scorch the bottom while the rolls steam, and too much makes the pancakes soggy. A small amount of liquid keeps the steam gentle and the pancakes tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter. 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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