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Pancakes

A batter of milk, cream, cinnamon, lemon peel, eggs, flour, sugar, and brandy cooked into pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Pancakes

Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix milk, cream, cinnamon, and lemon peel in a pot.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil for 1 hour.

  3. Beat the eggs for 5-6 minutes.

  4. Add flour to the eggs and mix well.

  5. Strain the milk and cream mixture into the egg and flour mixture.

  6. Add brandy and mix thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a pan.

  2. Add a little clarified butter or lard. Wipe out excess with a clean cloth.

  3. Pour a large spoonful of batter into the hot pan.

  4. Cook until golden brown.

  5. Dust with sifted sugar as pancakes are removed from the pan.

  6. Serve pancakes warm with Seville oranges and lemons.

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.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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
Beaten eggs add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the pan.
Flour
Starch thickens the batter and gives the pancakes body and a tender set.
Milk and cream
Liquid dairy adds moisture and richness, and the fat helps browning.
Clarified butter or lard
Fat in the pan fries the batter edges and promotes an even golden browning.

The step that matters

Cooking the batter in the pan. The pan must be hot and only lightly greased, with excess wiped away. Too much fat fries the pancake rather than setting it, and a cool pan lets the batter spread and stick before it sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, cinnamon, egg, flour, sugar, brandy. 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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