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Dessert

Rye Drop-cakes, or Muffins

A quick rye muffin made with rye meal, baking soda, cream of tartar, and eggs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Drop-cakes, or Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

  3. In another bowl, cream the butter until smooth.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks until thick and frothy, then beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Combine the yolks and whites, then add the sugar and mix well.

  3. Add the creamed butter to the dry ingredients, then stir in the egg mixture.

  4. Gradually add the warm milk while stirring until you achieve a thick batter.

  5. Fill small cake tins two-thirds full with the batter.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or 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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye meal
Provides the main structure and the distinctive earthy flavour of the cakes.
Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda reacts properly and helps the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that leavens the cakes.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter, adding moisture and tenderness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them in gently. Whites that are under-beaten give little lift, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and collapse when mixed. Folding gently keeps the trapped air that helps the cakes rise.

“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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