Are pancakes better with amber or dark maple syrup

On September 26, National Pancake Day, had a test kitchen with 3 from scratch recipes and 3 commercial pancake mixes. 

One mix and one recipe were buttermilk pancakes. The others were eggs and milk, though the mixes used powdered eggs and milk so only add water. The three from scratch recipes were New York Times Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes, King Arthur Baking, and Vermont Maple's own pancake recipe. 

 

Monday was National Pancake Day. We had a test kitchen with 3 store mixes vs 3 from scratch. The best were my home recipe and King Arthur buttermilk pancakes. The former went best with amber and the latter with dark syrup. 

When I say went best with - that doesn’t catch the spirit of best. It was like a logarithmic scale that jumped from good to amazing. The magic in the King Arthur mix was malted barely flour and the powdered buttermilk. It just paired so well with dark. And no kidding - our pancake recipe was made for amber maple syrup. 

The naturally occurring vanilla aroma in the syrup was so strong that we downgraded one mix and one recipe that had vanilla in them. The mix had a chemical vanilla and the pairing was just wrong. Nasty aftertaste. The NYTimes recipe has vanilla from my stock - a bottle of Absolut vodka stuffed with vanilla beans. It was superfluous. 

We rated the pancakes on appearance, texture, aroma, and flavor with and without syrup. Then we deconstructed the recipes to find what made one better than another. 
It was a great experience. Next National Pancake Day we will be ready. 

In this post, I'm going to focus on one of the winners - the one that paired the best with our dark maple syrup. 

King Arthur Buttermilk Pancake Mix paired magically with Vermont Maple dark. None of the other pancake mixes came close. When I say it was twice as good as dark on any other pancake or amber on King Arthur, that's not an exaggeration. It was a flavor bomb.  Turns out, it is not magic - it is science. 

Food pairing is based on the principal that foods combine well with one another when they have similar molecular compounds in common. That is unlike taste where contrasts win the day (sweet and sour, bitter and salty) and texture (chewy and crunchy). Which molecules are at play in pancakes? 

 Furaneol is one of many aromatic compounds found in maple syrup. It is derived from glucose. As glucose is lowest in golden and highest in dark and very dark syrup, furaneol would be highest in the darker syrups. A flavor and fragrance database describes the scent of furaneol as sweet cotton candy caramel strawberry sugar. Another company describers the scent as sweet, slightly burnt brown caramellic, cotton candy with a savory nuance.

 Furaneol is also an important component of the odors of buckwheat. Malted barley flour. Not buckwheat.  furaneol (4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethylfuran-3(2H)-one) (caramel aromas) were also found at higher concentrations in color and crystal malt, 

Both malted barley flour and maple syrup contain aromatic compounds that contribute to their unique flavors. Some of the specific compounds found in malted barley include a variety of alcohols, esters, and ketones, while maple syrup contains compounds such as vanillin, and syringol. Additionally, both malted barley flour and maple syrup contain a wide variety of other volatile compounds that contribute to their flavors, such as furans and aldehydes. 


 which is part of a flour blend in King Arthur Buttermilk Pancake Mix . Unlike taste pairings that work better with contrast (e.g., sweet and sour, bitter and salty), aromas build on each other. Furaneol + Furaneol = wow! Dark syrup pairs better with buckwheat pancakes than golden or amber. In addition, Furaneol has an odor resemblance to Maltol, which is found, among other things, in roasted malt. The King Arthur pancake mix includes malted barley flour. 

It is a small leap to say that the malted barley flour in King Arthur Buttermilk Pancake Mix paired with the furaneol in the dark maple syrup. I love science, but screw it - it was magical.