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Baking

Buckwheat Cakes

Buckwheat Cakes are a batter made from buckwheat flour, white flour, milk, water, sugar, yeast, and baking soda, baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve one cake of Fleischmann's yeast in two cups lukewarm water and one cup scalded and cooled milk, along with two tablespoonfuls light brown sugar and one and one-half teaspoon salt.

  2. Add two cups buckwheat flour and one cup sifted white flour gradually, and stir in the salt.

  3. Beat the batter until smooth.

  4. Cover and set aside in a warm place, free from draft, to rise for about one hour.

Bake

  1. When the batter is light, stir well and bake on a hot griddle.

Overnight option

  1. If desired for overnight, use one-fourth cake of yeast and an extra half teaspoon salt.

  2. Cover and keep in a cool place.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

653Calories
21 gProtein
9 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 7 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Buckwheatnot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Buckwheat + teatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Milk + buckwheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour 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

Buckwheat flour
Gives the pancakes their characteristic earthy flavour and a hearty, slightly dense structure.
White flour
Adds gluten-forming structure that helps the batter hold its shape and rise.
Yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes it light and bubbly before baking.
Milk
Adds richness, softness and browning to the batter.
Light brown sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and a slight caramel flavour.

The step that matters

Rising in a warm, draft-free place. Yeast activity depends on warmth and stillness. Too cold and the batter rises slowly; drafts can dry the surface and uneven warmth gives uneven lightness, so the batter should be checked until it is light before baking.

Swap the buckwheat

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Buckwheatthe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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

“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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