Name: Vert Rich Pancakes
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; 1 pint cream or rich milk; 2 ounces loaf sugar; 8 eggs; 2 tablespoons brandy or ratafia; ¾ pound fine flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Vert Rich Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream the butter in a bowl.
Gradually add the cream or milk and loaf sugar, mixing well.
Beat the eggs until fine, then mix in the brandy or ratafia.
Combine the egg mixture with the flour, salt, and nutmeg until smooth.

Fry and serve

Heat a clean frying pan and grease it lightly with butter.
Pour batter into the pan and fry pancakes on one side only.
Stack pancakes with fine sugar sprinkled between each.
Transfer to a serving dish with the browned side facing up.
Garnish with slices of lemon around the dish.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 and richness as they set in the pan.
Butter: Adds richness and flavour, and greases the pan for lightly browned pancakes.
Fine flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pancakes together when cooked.
Cream or rich milk: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the batter tender and smooth.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the batter and contributes to browning in the pan.

The step that matters

Fry pancakes on one side only. Cooking on one side lets the underside set and brown while the top stays soft. Heat that is too high will scorch the base before the batter sets through.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, flour):

Nutmegthe original
Cinnamonfits about as well
Capersfits less well
Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, flour. 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.

Brandy Peaches68 recipes

Brandy Cream21 recipes

Brandy Pudding13 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The 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.

Vert Rich Pancakes