Why it works: Milk and butter 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
Mix flour, eggs, salt, and sweet milk until smooth.
Add more milk or a little water if the batter is too thick.
Cook and serve
Grease a hot griddle and pour in a small teacup half full of batter.
Let the batter spread thin and cook quickly.
Fold the pancake in half with both sides meeting in the middle.
Keep pancakes warm over hot water until ready to serve.
Serve with molasses or wine sauce.
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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Milk + buttertop 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 + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the pancake structure while cooking.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and sets the batter's consistency.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavor and helps the surface brown on the griddle.
The step that matters
Let the batter spread thin and cook quickly. A thin layer on a hot griddle cooks fast and evenly, setting before it can become dense or gummy. If the griddle is cool or the batter is too thick, the pancake turns out heavy and pale.
“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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