Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix flour, milk, eggs, salt, and sugar until the batter is light and smooth.
Let the batter rest for a few hours if possible.
Cook the pancakes
Heat a frying pan and melt a little dripping or butter.
Pour enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan.
Cook over medium heat, loosening the edges occasionally.
Check if the underside is browned, then flip the pancake to brown the other side.
Remove the pancake and place it on kitchen paper to absorb excess grease.
Keep pancakes warm on a hot dish until ready to serve.
Serve
Sprinkle sugar and squeeze lemon juice over the pancake before serving.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pancake together as it sets.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firm while adding richness.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its pourable, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly in the pan.
- Dripping or butter
- Fat in the pan that prevents sticking and gives the surface a golden color.
The step that matters
Cooking over medium heat and flipping at the right time. Heat that is too high browns the outside before the centre sets, leaving it raw inside. Waiting until the underside is browned lets the pancake set enough to flip cleanly without tearing.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, sugar, butter. 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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