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 make a light batter.
Fry the pancakes
Heat a small pan over medium-high heat and add dripping or lard.
Pour a small amount of batter into the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides.
Serve
Serve with sugar and lemon, or use small beer or clean snow as an egg substitute.
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.
-
Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Ginger + beertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Milk + beertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together298 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 during cooking to give the pancake its structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the pancake its body.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and thins the batter so it spreads and cooks through evenly.
The step that matters
Frying the pancakes. Pour small amounts of batter and cook over medium-high heat. The batter sets as it heats, and the surface browns through the Maillard reaction. If the heat is too high, the outside browns before the centre has set.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, sugar, lemon, beer):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, sugar, lemon, 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.
More pancakes recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.