Why it works: Butter and milk 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
Melt the butter until semi-liquid and add it to the flour.
Stir well, pouring in the milk until a thick cream-like batter forms.
Fry and serve
Warm a frying pan by melting a little butter or lard in it. Wipe the pan clean.
Add more butter to the pan.
When the butter boils, pour in enough batter to cover the pan.
Fry until light brown on one side.
Turn the pancake and fry the other side.
Serve hot with lemon juice and sugar.
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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Butter + milktop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the batter once mixed with liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and helps the pancake brown and taste rich in the pan.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture and thick, cream-like body.
The step that matters
Frying the first side over steady heat. The pan must be hot enough for the butter to sizzle, but not so hot that the surface scorches before the batter sets. Wiping the pan clean first keeps stray butter solids from burning and making the pancake taste bitter, which is why the step matters for an even light-brown colour.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar. 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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