Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Common Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Add flour, sugar, ginger, and nutmeg.
Stir in enough milk to create a thick batter.
Cook the pancakes
Heat a small frying pan.
Melt a little butter in the pan. Pour out the melted butter.
Wipe the pan or rub it with a buttered cloth. Add a small piece of butter to the pan.
When it froths, pour in a ladleful of batter.
Swirl the pan to spread the batter evenly.
Run a knife around the edges.
Flip the pancake.
Brown lightly on both sides.
Keep pancakes warm by doubling them up or rolling them lightly.
Serve
Serve hot with grated sugar and sliced lemon.
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.
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Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and give the pancakes structure as they set in the pan.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch that sets the batter and gives the pancakes body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown lightly in the pan.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and sets the batter's thickness and moisture.
- Butter
- Greases the pan and adds fat for flavour and light browning.
The step that matters
Pouring the batter onto a hot, greased pan. The pan must be hot enough that the batter froths on contact, which sets the underside quickly. If the pan is too cool, the batter spreads and soaks in, and the pancake sticks and turns out heavy.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, nutmeg, milk, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, nutmeg, milk, 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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