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Dessert

Rye-cakes

A baked rye cake made with rye meal, sour milk, eggs, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Rye-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the rye meal, salt, and baking soda.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until pale and creamy.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Make the batter

  1. Combine the beaten yolks with the rye mixture, creating a well in the center.

  2. Add the sour milk and mix vigorously until effervescence occurs.

Bake

  1. Grease twelve small cake tins and fill them two-thirds full with the batter.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes without opening the oven, then check for doneness.

  3. Bake for a total of 45 minutes to 1 hour, ensuring they are thoroughly baked.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Rye + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together348 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye meal
Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives a dense, moist, slightly earthy crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas that makes the cakes rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds a mild tang and tenderness.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while beaten whites add lightness and structure.

The step that matters

Add the sour milk and mix vigorously until effervescence occurs.. The bubbling comes from the acid in the sour milk reacting with the baking soda and releasing carbon dioxide. Mixing promptly keeps that gas in the batter so the cakes rise well in the oven.

“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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