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Rye Drop Cakes

Rye Drop Cakes are small fried cakes made from rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, molasses, milk, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Rye Drop Cakes

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Drop Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix and sift the dry ingredients together.

  2. Gradually add the milk, molasses, and beaten egg.

Fry and drain

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot deep fat.

  2. Fry until light brown and cooked through, checking by piercing with a skewer or breaking apart.

  3. Remove with a skimmer and drain on brown paper.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye meal
Adds earthy flavor and a tender, less chewy crumb than wheat alone.
All-purpose flour
Provides the gluten network that gives the drop cakes their structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and puff while frying.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color, and moisture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the cakes as they cook.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to a droppable consistency.

The step that matters

Drop the batter into hot deep fat. Batter dropped into hot fat sets quickly on the outside and cooks through, while cool fat lets the cakes soak up grease and turn heavy. Checking doneness by piercing or breaking one open confirms the centre is cooked.

“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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