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Dessert

Apoquiniminc Cakes

A cake made from salt, egg, butter, flour, and milk, baked on a gridiron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apoquiniminc Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine salt, beaten egg, and butter.

  2. Add flour and mix to form a paste, adding new milk as needed.

  3. Beat the mixture for 30 minutes with a pestle.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the paste thin and cut into round cakes.

  2. Bake the cakes on a gridiron, being careful not to burn them.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the paste, giving the cakes their body once it is rolled and baked.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the paste tender and rich in texture.
Large egg
Binds the dough and adds richness to hold the paste together.
New milk
Adds moisture so the flour can form a workable paste.

The step that matters

Bake the cakes on a gridiron, being careful not to burn them. Thin cakes brown quickly over direct heat, so sugar and proteins can scorch before the centre is cooked. Watching closely and adjusting heat prevents bitter, burnt surfaces.

“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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