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Flour Pancakes

A simple batter of flour, baking powder, salt, butter, eggs, and milk, cooked on a hot griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Flour Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the melted butter and beaten eggs.

  3. Gradually add milk until the batter reaches the desired consistency.

Cook

  1. Bake immediately on a hot griddle or frying pan.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Provides the structure that holds the pancake together as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps prevent sticking.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and sets the batter's consistency for pouring.

The step that matters

Bake immediately on a hot griddle or frying pan. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it gets wet, so the batter should go onto a hot surface right after mixing. Waiting lets the gas escape, leaving flatter, denser pancakes.

“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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