Why it works: Whey and cream work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Superfine Oat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a large bowl, mix the sour whey and thick cream well.
In another bowl, combine the finely ground oatmeal, baking soda, and salt.
Add enough of the liquid mixture to form a fairly stiff dough and stir with a spoon.
Turn the dough out onto a baking board dusted with dry oatmeal and roll it out thin.
Brush off any loose oatmeal with a pastry brush.
Cook the oatcakes
Place another board face down on the rolled-out cake, then turn the boards to lift off the top one.
Brush the other side of the cake and place it on a hot griddle.
Shake the board to make the cake slip off onto the griddle.
When the top is dry, cut the cake as desired and turn it over.
Leave on the griddle for about 3 minutes, then stand in front of the fire to finish cooking until light brown, crisp, and light.
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.
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Whey + creamtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together36 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oatmeal
- Forms the body of the dough and gives the oatcakes their earthy flavour and structure.
- Sour whey
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the cake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour whey to produce carbon dioxide, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
- Thick cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the texture and adding flavour to the dough.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough thin and getting the griddle right. Rolling the dough thin lets the cake dry and crisp through, while a hot griddle sets the surface quickly so it can be lifted and turned without tearing. A dough that is too thick stays doughy in the middle.
“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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