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Yorkshire Tea Cakes

A yeasted bread roll made with flour, lard or butter, milk or water, sugar, salt, and yeast, baked until golden.

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

Yorkshire Tea Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Rub the lard into the flour.

  2. Warm the mixture slightly.

  3. Add the salt and sugar.

  4. Cream the yeast with a little extra sugar.

  5. Pour the warm milk onto the yeast mixture.

  6. Mix all ingredients to form a light dough.

  7. Knead the dough well.

  8. Place the dough in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.

  9. Knead again.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into three portions.

  2. Shape each portion into a round tea cake.

  3. Place the tea cakes on warmed greased tins.

  4. Let them prove for 10 minutes.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 12 minutes.

  6. Brush the tops with butter when ready.

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).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 gluten network that gives the tea cakes their structure.
Lard or butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and a soft, short crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk or water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, forming the dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast so it ferments and rises, and adds light sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Under-rising leaves dense tea cakes, while the warm spot keeps fermentation steady.

“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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