Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix flour, eggs, milk, and baking powder into a thin batter.
Cook and serve
Heat lard in a frying pan.
Pour some batter into the pan.
Cook until browned on one side, then flip to cook the other side.
Serve with lemon juice and sugar.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 add structure to the cooked pancakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the pancakes as its starches set when cooked.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and browning through its milk sugars.
The step that matters
Cook until browned on one side, then flip. Flipping too early, before the underside has set and browned, makes the pancake tear or stick. Cooking on moderate heat lets the centre set through without scorching the outside.
“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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