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--bread Crumbs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Add yeast to warm water and pour gradually over flour and salt, stirring; when light add crumbs soaked in milk and warmed a little.
Slightly warm the pans and oil them.
Bake and serve
When ready to bake the gems, warm the irons a little and without stirring the batter dip it into the cups, filling them to the brim, set into a slow oven that bakes well from the bottom.
Bake until well risen, increase the heat sufficiently to brown the gems nicely, then lower the temperature and finish baking. Be sure that the gems are well baked to the center. Turn out of pans at once and let stand for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.
If the oven does not bake well at the bottom, leave the pans on top of the stove where it is not too hot, for 10-15 minutes, then place carefully in the oven.
When baking with gas, put the gems on the top grate of the oven before it is lighted; use one burner only at first and have that turned rather low.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 6 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Buckwheat | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together660 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together328 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Buckwheat + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour and milk 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
- Provides the main structure and a distinctive, earthy flavour in the gems.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, so the batter rises and becomes light before baking.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Soaked in milk, they add softness and moisture to the batter's crumb.
- Milk
- Softens the bread crumbs and adds richness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Bake until well risen, then raise the heat to brown. Gems must rise fully before the heat is increased, or they stay dense. Baking through to the center sets the structure so the middle does not collapse or stay wet.
“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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