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Bread

Economy Cakes

A cake made from dried sour bread, eggs, flour, baking soda, and milk, fried into a batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Economy Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bread

  1. Dry the bread pieces in a moderately hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for several weeks if not using immediately.

  2. Soak the dried bread in cold water overnight.

  3. Drain the water and mash the bread finely.

Make the batter

  1. Mix in salt, eggs, baking soda mixture, and flour.

  2. Add enough milk to create a batter suitable for frying like buckwheat cakes.

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.

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

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

  2. Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sour bread
Forms the base and bulk of the cakes once soaked and mashed.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during frying.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour bread's acidity to release gas, helping the cakes rise.
Wheat or rye flour
Adds starch and body so the batter holds together.
Milk
Thins the mixture into a frying batter and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. The milk sets the batter's consistency. If the batter is too thick, the cakes will not cook through evenly; if it is too thin, they will spread and fall apart in the pan.

“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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