Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the batter until light; the longer you beat, the better it will be. Make the batter a few hours before cooking.
Wipe the frying pan and melt a little dripping in it.
Pour enough batter to barely cover the bottom of the pan and set it over a clear fire.
Loosen the edges of the pancake, jerking the pan occasionally to prevent sticking.
Check if the underside is browned by turning one side over with a knife; if browned, toss the pancake to brown the other side.
Place the pancake on kitchen paper to absorb grease, sprinkle with sugar, and squeeze lemon juice over it.
Stack the finished pancakes on a hot dish, keeping them warm until serving.
Add a little fresh fat to the pan for each pancake.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + breadtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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