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Rumford Buckwheat Cakes

A quick buckwheat batter cooked on a hot griddle, served with honey or grape syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rumford Buckwheat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine cold water and salt.

  2. Add buckwheat flour and corn meal; beat until smooth.

  3. Cover and let stand in a warm place for a short time.

  4. When ready, mix in the yeast powder thoroughly.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake on a smoking-hot griddle.

  2. Serve immediately with honey or grape syrup.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buckwheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Buckwheat + honeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Corn + honeytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Pure buckwheat flour
Provides the main body and the characteristic earthy flavor of the cakes.
White corn meal
Adds a little grit and texture to the batter.
Rumford yeast powder
Leavens the batter so the cakes rise and become light and porous.

The step that matters

Baking on a smoking-hot griddle. A very hot griddle sets the outside of each cake quickly, giving browning and structure before the batter spreads or the leavening fades. A cool griddle makes flat, pale, gummy cakes.

Swap the buckwheat

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Buckwheatthe original
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, corn, honey. 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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