Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of the eggs well and stir them into the milk.
Mix flour with a little milk, then gradually add the rest of the milk.
Add the beaten ginger, brandy, and salt, and stir well.
Cook and serve
Heat a pan and add a piece of butter.
Pour a ladleful of batter into the pan, moving it around to spread the batter evenly.
Shake the pan; when one side is done, turn it over.
Once both sides are cooked, place the pancake in a dish near the fire.
Repeat with the remaining batter, sprinkling sugar over the pancakes 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Yolks enrich the batter and help bind it with the milk and flour.
- Flour
- Starch gives the batter body and structure so the pancakes hold together when turned.
- Milk
- Liquid that hydrates the flour and makes the batter pourable and tender.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour to the batter.
The step that matters
Turning the pancake. Turn it only once the underside is set and cooked through; flipping too early tears the pancake, while waiting too long can over-brown or dry it. Shaking the pan first helps it loosen from the surface.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, flour, brandy, butter, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, brandy, butter, sugar. 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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