Pancakes Lab802 recipes
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Pancakes around the world

802 pancake recipes in 7 languages: English 545, French 101, German 44, Italian 36, Dutch 34, Portuguese 31 and Spanish 11. Each is reduced to grams per 100 g of flour, the same as everywhere in the lab, so a French page and an American one line up. English, the largest group, is the one the others are compared with.

The language is the page's, not the cook's country: a French page may be from Quebec, a Portuguese one from Brazil, a Dutch one from Belgium. Each language's lines are read in its own words and units, and a recipe that gives “a pinch” of salt counts a pinch.

Where they part from English

The clearest differences for each language, medians per 100 g of flour. Only differences large enough to matter and unlikely to be chance are listed (how below).

  • German 44 recipesGerman recipes use 39% less liquid than English ones (103% against 171% of the flour weight), 35% less leavening (3.8% against 5.8%) and under a third as much salt (0.2% against 1.2%).
  • Portuguese 31 recipesPortuguese recipes use 39% less liquid than English ones (103% against 171% of the flour weight) and 41% less fat (11% against 19%); most use no salt (51%, against 10% of English recipes).
  • Dutch 34 recipesDutch recipes use 19% less liquid than English ones (138% against 171% of the flour weight), under a third as much sugar (4.9% against 16%) and under a third as much salt (0.2% against 1.2%).
  • French 101 recipesFrench recipes use 27% less liquid than English ones (124% against 171% of the flour weight), 48% less fat (10% against 19%) and 24% less leavening (4.4% against 5.8%).
  • Italian 36 recipesItalian recipes use 25% less liquid than English ones (127% against 171% of the flour weight) and 31% less leavening (4% against 5.8%); most use no salt (50%, against 10% of English recipes).
  • Spanish 11 recipes45% of Spanish recipes use no salt, against 10% of English recipes.

Every ingredient, language by language

Grams per 100 g of flour. One row a language, largest first.

middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes

Liquid
Egg
Sugar
Fat
Leavening
Salt

The typical batch in each language

The median of each language's recipes for every ingredient, scaled to 250 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this. Under each, the recipe nearest its language's medians.

The medians and middle halves as a table
Median and middle half per 100 g of flour, by language
LanguageLiquidEggSugarFatLeaveningSalt
English 545171%144% to 195%40%32% to 50%16%10% to 22%19%11% to 23%5.8%4.4% to 7.4%1.2%0.7% to 1.6%
French 101124%103% to 171%40%35% to 60%15%7.5% to 25%10%0% to 20%4.4%3.1% to 5.5%0.2%0% to 0.3%
German 44103%93% to 167%50%36% to 63%17%9.7% to 25%10%0% to 20%3.8%3.1% to 5.6%0.2%0% to 0.5%
Italian 36127%100% to 151%50%33% to 51%19%13% to 31%13%0% to 20%4%3% to 5%0.05%0% to 0.3%
Dutch 34138%126% to 171%44%40% to 50%4.9%1.8% to 10%13%0% to 16%6.2%4.6% to 9.6%0.2%0.2% to 0.3%
Portuguese 31103%96% to 154%40%33% to 52%13%9% to 24%11%0% to 19%4.9%3.6% to 7.4%0%0% to 1%
Spanish 11129%102% to 170%47%40% to 52%20%17% to 28%11%8.7% to 20%4.9%3% to 5.9%0.3%0% to 1%

How the comparison works

A language gets a row with at least 8 recipes. Each is compared with the English recipes on every ingredient, and a difference is listed only when it clears two bars: the medians sit at least a third of the middle half of all recipes apart (about half a standard deviation, a medium effect), and a rank test puts the gap at 3 standard errors or more, so a language with few recipes needs a large difference. For an ingredient many recipes skip, the share using none counts too: at least 25 points apart, at the same 3 standard errors.

Every ingredient is tested for every language, a few dozen tests per lab, which is why the bar is higher than the usual two standard errors. Salt is listed last when it differs: many recipes give it as a pinch or leave it to taste. Shares and “more than” percentages are rounded down, so none is an overstatement.

These are what recipe writers in each language do, not rules of each country's cooking. A language with 8 to 20 recipes may come mostly from a few sites; each recipe page names its source.