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English Pancakes

A thin batter pancake cooked in butter, served with powdered sugar and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Beat the eggs with the sugar, then dilute with the milk and cream.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients to make a thin batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add melted butter.

  2. Pour enough batter to cover the pan and cook until golden brown.

  3. Serve with powdered sugar, rolled into a round shape, and lemon slices.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the thin batter together.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting as the pancake cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter so the pancakes rise slightly.
Milk
Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, tender texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps the pancake brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Pour enough batter to cover the pan and cook until golden brown. The batter is thin, so the pan should be lightly coated and the heat moderate. Browning is driven by sugars and proteins reacting at the surface, so pulling the pancake too early leaves it pale and soft, while too much heat can scorch it before the centre sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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

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