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Buttermilk Pancakes

A simple batter of buttermilk, flour, baking soda, salt, and egg cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and egg.

  2. Gradually add flour until the batter is thin.

  3. Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles form, then flip and cook until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Buttermilk
Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to release gas, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the batter set and hold together on the griddle.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that form the pancake's body and structure as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles form, then flip. Bubbles appear as gas and steam escape through the setting batter; flipping too early tears the pancake, while a griddle that is too cool makes pancakes flat and pale instead of golden.

“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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