Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate mixture
Mix the grated chocolate smoothly with ½ cup of cold milk.
Boil the remaining milk.
Pour the boiled milk onto the chocolate mixture. Stir the mixture until smooth.
Add the sugar.
Let the mixture cool.
Make the batter
Whisk the eggs well. Stir the whisked eggs into the flour.
Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the flour.
Let the batter stand until cold.
Cook and serve
Fry the pancakes in a hot skillet.
Sprinkle the pancakes with sugar.
Roll the pancakes up.
Serve the pancakes very hot.
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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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Flour
- Provides the starch structure that holds the batter together when cooked.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during frying, giving the pancakes structure.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid base and moisture.
- Grated chocolate
- Supplies the chocolate flavour and adds richness to the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning in the hot skillet.
The step that matters
Let the batter stand until cold. Cooling the chocolate mixture before adding it keeps the eggs from scrambling and the batter from thinning, so the pancakes hold together in the pan.
“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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