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Dessert

Rye-cakes

Rye Cakes are small cakes 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.

  5. Combine the beaten yolks with the egg whites.

Make the batter

  1. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the sour milk.

  2. Mix vigorously until the batter is light and effervescent.

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 up to 45 minutes, ensuring they are thoroughly cooked.

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
Provides the structure and earthy flavour of the cakes.
Eggs
Whipped whites lighten the batter, while yolks add richness and help set the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.

The step that matters

Mix vigorously after adding the sour milk. Vigorous mixing develops the batter's airy, effervescent texture. Once the baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour milk, the gas bubbles begin forming, so the batter should be mixed and baked promptly to keep the 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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