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Dessert

Batter Cakes

A batter cake is a thin pancake made with eggs, milk, cream, pearlash, spices, and rose water, cooked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Combine the eggs with milk and cream.

  3. Dissolve pearlash in the mixture.

  4. Add salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and rose-water.

  5. Stir in sifted flour until the batter is smooth and thick.

Cook and serve

  1. Butter the pan well and drop in small, thin rounds of batter.

  2. Cook until nicely browned, turning carefully.

  3. Stack the pancakes on a plate with a little butter between each layer.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set the batter when cooked.
Pearlash
Acts as a raising agent, releasing gas that lightens the pancakes.
Sifted flour
Forms the main structure, thickening the batter so it holds its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Cook until nicely browned, turning carefully. The pancakes must be thin and set before turning, or they will tear. Browning comes from the milk and sugars in the batter reacting with heat, so the pan should be hot but not so hot that the outside burns before the centre cooks.

“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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