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Exeter Rye Drop Cakes

A quick rye drop cake made with rye flour, rye meal, wheat flour, milk, eggs, and buttered iron pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Exeter Rye Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the rye flour and rye meal thoroughly.

  2. Sift the wheat flour with the salt.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk.

  4. Beat the eggs thoroughly for 5-6 minutes, then add to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Preheat iron pans on the stove and butter them well.

  2. Fill the pans while still on the stove and bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

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. Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Provides the main structure and a distinctive earthy flavour in this batter.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the drop cakes hold their shape.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it rise and set as it bakes.
Milk
Hydrates the flours to form a pourable batter and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Preheat and butter the iron pans before filling. The pans must be hot so the batter sets on contact and begins to brown quickly. Well-buttered pans prevent sticking and help the cakes release cleanly.

“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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