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Buckwheat Cakes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Buckwheat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine 1 quart of buckwheat flour and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Add warm water gradually until you achieve a batter consistency and beat thoroughly.

  3. Mix in 2 tablespoons of baker's yeast and let the mixture rise overnight.

  4. For the second recipe, stir lukewarm milk into 1 quart of buckwheat flour until you have a thin batter.

  5. Add ½ tablespoon of salt and beat thoroughly.

  6. Incorporate 1 small cup of Indian meal and 2 tablespoons of yeast.

  7. Set the mixture in a warm place to rise overnight.

  8. In the morning, dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the batter.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the buckwheat

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk):

  1. Jalapenofits about as well
  2. Buckwheatthe original
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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