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Dessert

Indian Mush Cake

A yeast-leavened cake made with flour, butter, Indian mush, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Indian Mush Cake

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 the dough

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

  2. Rub together the flour, butter, and salt in a bowl.

  3. Add the Indian mush and yeast, then mix in enough milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Knead the dough well, then return it to the mixing bowl.

Shape and bake

  1. Once the dough has risen, shape it into round cakes about the size of a small teacup and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Place the cakes on buttered baking sheets and let them rise again.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

  4. Lightly wash the tops with water after baking and serve hot.

Breakfast variation and serving

  1. For breakfast, prepare the dough the evening before, shape it in the morning, and bake on a griddle until light brown on both sides.

  2. Split open and butter while hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough and the body of the cakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb, and is spread on the split cakes.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become light.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms a soft, workable dough.

The step that matters

Letting the shaped cakes rise again before baking. Yeast needs time to produce gas in the shaped cakes. Baking before they have risen again gives a denser, less airy result.

“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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