Name: A Prize Recipe for Buckwheat Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cake of yeast; 1 quart tepid water; 2 cups buckwheat flour; 1 cup white cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 tablespoons milk; 2 tablespoons New Orleans molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda

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 ↓

A Prize Recipe for Buckwheat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water.
Sift the buckwheat flour, cornmeal, and salt together.
Pour the tepid water over the flour mixture until you have a stiff batter.
Beat the batter well.

Rise and finish

Place the batter in a warm spot to rise for about an hour.
Mix in the milk, molasses, and baking soda.
Let the batter rise again until ready to bake.
Prepare the batter the evening before for best results.

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.

Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together660 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buckwheat + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together199 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Yeast: Produces gas as it feeds, so the batter rises and becomes light.
Buckwheat flour: Forms the main body of the batter and gives the cakes their earthy flavor.
White cornmeal: Adds a coarser, slightly crisp texture to the cakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
New orleans molasses: Adds sweetness and a deep, rich flavor.
Baking soda: Adds extra lift to the batter as it is mixed in.

The step that matters

Place the batter in a warm spot to rise. Yeast works slowly in cold conditions, so a warm spot lets it produce enough gas to lighten the batter. A cold spot can leave the cakes dense and under-risen.

Swap the buckwheat

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, molasses):

Cinnamonfits better
Buckwheatthe original
Jalapenofits less well
Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, molasses. 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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A Prize Recipe for Buckwheat Cakes