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Dessert

Ohio Tea Cakes

A yeasted cake made with flour, butter, milk, and yeast, baked and glazed with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ohio Tea Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour and butter as for pastry.

  2. Pour in warm milk and yeast.

  3. Let rise for 1¼ hours.

  4. Add a little more milk.

  5. Knead well.

  6. Let rise again for 1½ hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough.

  2. Cut with a large cutter.

  3. Place in a well‑greased baking pan.

  4. Let rise for a few minutes.

  5. Bake until light brown.

  6. Remove from the oven.

  7. Rub a little butter over them for a glaze.

  8. Return to the oven until thoroughly done.

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. Flour + buttertop 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).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough that holds the rise and crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps browning on the crust.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds softness and browning sugars to the crumb.
Liquid yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.

The step that matters

Returning the cakes to the oven after glazing. Glazing with butter after the first bake and then returning them to the oven needs care, since the cakes can over-brown or dry out if baked too long. Checking for doneness in the middle of the dough's interior prevents a gummy centre.

“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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