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Breakfast

Buttermilk Pancakes

A quick batter of flour, egg, sugar, salt, baking powder, and buttermilk cooked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. Gradually add the buttermilk and stir until well combined.

Cook the pancakes

  1. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the hot griddle and cook until bubbles form on the surface.

  3. Flip and cook until golden brown on the other side.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 cooks.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the pancake's structure as it cooks.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity helps the baking powder react.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the pancakes rise and become light.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Wait for bubbles before flipping. Bubbles form as heat sets the batter and gas expands, so the surface is firm enough to flip. Flipping too early tears the pancake and leaves the centre raw.

“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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