Why it works: Wheat and buckwheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 113 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Buckwheat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.
Sift the wheat flour and salt into a bowl.
Add molasses, lukewarm milk, and the dissolved yeast to the flour.
Beat the batter until smooth.
Set aside in a warm place, free from drafts, to rise for about 45 minutes.
When light, the batter is ready to bake.
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.
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Wheat + buckwheattop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together113 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + buckwheattop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together660 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together328 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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 (wheat, flour, milk, molasses):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Buckwheatthe original
- Nutmegfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, milk, molasses. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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