Pancakes Lab
Thin to fluffy: liquid, egg, sugar and leavening per 100 g of flour.
802 recipes from 170 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
802
from 170 sites
Typical flour
250 g
about 2 cups
Lines weighed
96%
of ingredient lines
Weights printed
17%
by the source, rest converted
The median of all 802 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 250 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 250 gabout 2 cups |
| LiquidMost recipes use 315 to 490 g | 400 gabout 1 2/3 cups |
| EggMost recipes use 85 to 135 g | 100 gabout 2 large eggs |
| SugarMost recipes use 25 to 60 g | 40 gabout 3 tbsp |
| Fat25% use none; the rest mostly 34 to 60 g | 41 gabout 3 tbsp |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 10 to 18 g | 14 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 0.5 to 4 g | 2.5 g |
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
median 159% · most 126 to 195%
Milk or buttermilk sets how thick the batter is: less spreads less and cooks up thicker and fluffier.
range 41 to 258%
median 40% · most 33 to 53%
Egg adds structure and richness; separating and whipping the whites is the fluffiest route.
range 0 to 129% · 7% use none
median 16% · most 10 to 23%
A little sugar helps browning. Much more and the pancake burns before the middle sets.
range 0 to 60% · 7% use none
median 16% · 25% use none
Melted butter or oil in the batter gives a tender, less rubbery pancake.
range 0 to 64% · those that use some, mostly 14 to 23%
median 5.4% · most 3.9 to 7.3%
Baking powder does most of the lifting. Buttermilk recipes add baking soda to use its acid.
range 0.5 to 13%
median 0.9% · most 0.2 to 1.6%
Salt keeps the batter from tasting flat under syrup.
range 0 to 4.8% · 19% use none
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
Recipes agree most on liquid and egg: liquid 126 to 195%, egg 33 to 53% for the middle half.
802 of the recipes come in 7 languages with enough of each to compare: English 545, French 101, German 44, Italian 36, Dutch 34, Portuguese 31, Spanish 11.
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “fluffy” (62), “best” (26) or “easy” (19) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
Recipes with “vegan” in the title: most use no egg (100% vs 5%); less salt (0.4% vs 1.2%).
“vegan” (16)the rest (529)middle half of all
Egg · share using anyrecipes with vegan in the title 0% vs the rest 94%
Saltrecipes with vegan in the title 0.4% vs the rest 1.2%
Recipes with “eggless” in the title: most use no egg (100% vs 5%).
“eggless” (11)the rest (534)middle half of all
Egg · share using anyrecipes with eggless in the title 0% vs the rest 94%
113 pancake recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 689, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (113)the rest (689)middle half of all
Liquidthe most-reviewed recipes 149% vs the rest 161%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 40% vs the rest 40%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 13% vs the rest 17%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 18% vs the rest 16%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 5% vs the rest 5.5%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.8% vs the rest 0.9%
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
In 7 languages: English 545, French 101, German 44, Italian 36, Dutch 34, Portuguese 31, Spanish 11. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 170 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
96% of the 7,516 ingredient lines got a weight. 17% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 845 were left out: 421 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (liquid 209, leavening 82, egg 68, sugar 50, fat 11, salt 1), 176 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 101 with a title that names a different dish, 55 too many lines without an amount, 45 made from a boxed mix, 16 over the 12-per-site cap, 13 duplicates of other pages, 11 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 7 a listing page, not a recipe page.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.