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Pancakes

A batter of flour, milk, eggs, baking powder, and salt cooked on a skillet.

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

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In another bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.

  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Cook

  1. Heat a skillet over medium heat and lightly grease it.

  2. Pour batter onto the skillet and cook until bubbles form, then flip and cook until golden brown.

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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the pancakes set and hold their shape.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the pancakes rise and become light.

The step that matters

Stirring the batter until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes pancakes tough and chewy. A few lumps are fine and keep the texture tender.

“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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