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 ↓
Common Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, and milk to create a light batter.
Cook and serve
Heat a small pan over medium-high heat and add hot dripping or lard.
Pour a small amount of batter into the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides.
Serve with sugar and lemon.
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.
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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ginger + beertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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 add structure as they set in the pan.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the batter's structure as its starches set during cooking.
- Milk
- Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture and browning.
The step that matters
Frying the pancakes in hot fat. The pan and fat must be hot enough so the batter sets quickly and browns evenly. If the pan is too cool, pancakes absorb fat, turn greasy, and stick or spread unevenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, beer):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, beer. 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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