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Dessert

Nice Breakfast Cakes

A quick baked cake made with meal, sour milk, eggs, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Nice Breakfast Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first batter

  1. Put three tablespoons of melted butter and three tablespoons of hot water into a coffee cup.

  2. Fill the cup to overflowing with molasses.

  3. Add two teaspoons of soda, one tablespoon of ginger, and a little cinnamon.

  4. Mix the mixture until soft and roll it out.

  5. Combine one pint of meal, one pint of sour milk, one spoon of soda sifted into the meal, two eggs, and one teaspoon of sugar.

  6. Beat the mixture thoroughly.

  7. Bake quickly.

Make the second batter

  1. Beat five eggs very lightly with a pint of sweet cream.

  2. Beat in one and one-half pints of flour.

  3. Bake in tins or cups in a quick oven.

  4. Combine one quart of flour, one teaspoon of salt, one quart of sour milk, and two tablespoons of melted butter.

  5. Add five well-beaten eggs and enough saleratus to sweeten the milk.

  6. Bake in waffle irons.

  7. Combine one quart of sour milk, one teaspoon of soda, and three eggs beaten separately.

  8. Make the batter a little stiffer than pancakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

892Calories
28 gProtein
31 gFat
123 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with soda to help the cakes rise.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that leavens the batter.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavour.

The step that matters

Bake quickly. A hot, quick oven or waffle iron sets the batter while the soda's gas is still forming, so the cakes rise and stay light instead of falling flat.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, sugar, flour, cream, egg, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, flour, cream, egg, cinnamon. 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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