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Dessert

Indian Pancake

A quick pancake made with eggs, milk, boiled rice, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, served with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Indian Pancake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs well.

  2. Add the milk, boiled rice, sugar, and ground cinnamon. Mix until combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the mixture into the skillet. Cook until the bottom is browned, about 1-2 minutes. Flip and brown the other side.

  3. Cut into quarters. Serve with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

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. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 set into a tender, custard-like structure as the pancake cooks.
Milk
Provides liquid that makes the batter pourable and adds moisture and softness.
Boiled rice
Adds body and a soft, slightly chewy texture to the batter.
Butter
Fat for frying that helps the bottom brown and adds richness.

The step that matters

Cook until the bottom is browned before flipping. Flipping too early can tear the set egg structure and leave the pancake raw in the middle. Waiting until the bottom is golden lets the eggs set so it holds together when turned.

“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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