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Dessert

A Very Old Receipt

A steamed and baked cake made with molasses, sour milk, boiling water, corn meal, graham flour, rye, wheat flour, soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 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 ↓

A Very Old Receipt

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Steam for three hours.

  2. Bake for one hour in oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

871Calories
27 gProtein
11 gFat
167 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Rye1 slice (32g)83
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Wheatnot 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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  4. Corn + ryetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar house molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and dark color to the crumb.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda so the cake rises and stays tender.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Corn meal
Gives the cake a coarser, more crumbly texture and a slight grainy bite.
Graham flour
Adds structure and a nutty, wholesome flavor to the batter.
White wheat flour
Provides gluten for structure so the cake holds its shape.

The step that matters

Steaming for three hours. Steam keeps the batter moist and heated gently and evenly, so the cake sets without drying out. If the steam drops or the pot boils dry, the batter can stay underbaked or turn dense.

“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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