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Dessert

French Griddle-cakes

A batter of eggs, flour, butter, sugar, and milk is fried into thin cakes, served with jelly and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

French Griddle-cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and flour together until smooth.

  2. Melt the butter and add it to the batter along with the sugar and milk.

Cook the pancakes

  1. Heat a lightly greased frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour a tablespoon of batter into the pan, spreading it evenly by tilting the pan.

  3. Fry until light brown on both sides.

Fill and serve

  1. Spread with jelly, roll up, and dust with powdered sugar before serving hot.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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
Provide structure and richness that help the batter set when cooked.
Flour
Gives the batter body and structure as its proteins set during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown.
Milk
Adds moisture and thins the batter so it spreads into thin pancakes.

The step that matters

Spreading the batter evenly in the pan. Tilting the pan to spread a thin, even layer lets the pancake cook through at a uniform rate. A thick or uneven layer can stay raw in places or scorch at the edges before the centre sets.

“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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