Name: Hoe Cake
Ingredients: a quart of wheat flour; three eggs to a stiff froth; two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast; salt

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hoe Cake

Ingredients

a quart of wheat flour
three eggs to a stiff froth
two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast
salt

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth.
Sift a quart of wheat flour into a pan, adding a salt-spoon of salt.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture.
Mix in the egg whites to form a thick batter.
Add two tablespoonfuls of the best fresh yeast to the batter.
Cover the mixture and let it stand all night.

Bake the cakes

In the morning, take a hoe-iron and prop it before the fire until it is well heated.
Flour a tea-saucer and fill it with batter.
Shake the saucer and clap it to the heated hoe-iron, which must be previously greased.
The batter will adhere until it is baked.
Repeat with each cake.
Keep the cakes hot and eat them with butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

533Calories

19 gProtein

6 gFat

96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 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
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Wheat	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.

By Eliza Leslie. 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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Wheat flour: Forms the bulk of the batter, giving the cakes their body and structure.
Eggs: Whites are beaten to a stiff froth, adding lightness and helping the batter set when baked.
Fresh yeast: Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that makes the cakes rise and turn light.