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Dessert

Ginger Pancakes

A sweet ginger pancake made with preserved ginger, frangipane, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, lemon peel, and decorated with preserved fruits and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Pancakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Pound the preserved ginger in a mortar.

  2. Mix in the frangipane and pass through a fine sieve.

  3. Combine with sifted flour, caster sugar, and salt.

  4. Stir in the beaten eggs and milk until smooth.

  5. Add melted butter and grated lemon peel, mixing well.

Cook and fill the pancakes

  1. Melt additional butter in a small pan and brush it over the bottom of an omelet pan.

  2. Pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and fry both sides until golden.

  3. Transfer pancakes to a baking sheet and repeat with remaining batter.

  4. Spread a thin layer of the ginger mixture on each pancake and fold them lengthwise.

Decorate and bake

  1. Arrange pancakes in a circle on a hot dish, decorate with meringue and preserved fruits.

  2. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a short time before serving.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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
Bind the batter and set the pancakes, giving them structure as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the pancakes brown and crisp in the pan.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the batter together when fried.
Milk
Thins the batter to a smooth pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pancakes take on golden browning.
Preserved ginger
Supplies the main flavour and aroma through the ginger filling.

The step that matters

Frying the pancakes until golden on both sides. Batter needs enough heat and butter to set quickly; too little heat leaves pancakes pale, soft, and likely to tear when folded.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, milk, butter, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, milk, butter, lemon. 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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