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Dessert

Tea-cakes, Yorkshire, Plain

A yeasted dough cake baked at 400°F, made with butter, lard, flour, yeast, water, egg, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Tea-cakes, Yorkshire, Plain

makes 10 cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Rub the butter and lard into the flour.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and pour it into a hollow in the flour.

  3. Mix a little flour with the yeast to make a thin batter and let it rise by the fire for 1 hour.

  4. Beat the egg with warm milk and stir it into the batter.

  5. Add salt and knead in enough warm milk to make a smooth dough.

  6. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into 10 pieces and roll them into saucer-sized cakes.

  2. Prick the cakes with a fork and let them rise on a baking tin for a few minutes.

  3. Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes without turning 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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 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 gluten structure that traps gas and gives the cakes their body.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour particles and shortening the gluten.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer, shorter texture.
Egg
Adds protein for structure and richness, and helps bind the dough.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dough and adding browning sugars and proteins.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough carbon dioxide to expand the gluten network. Rising too little leaves a dense cake, while the dough must still be handled gently so the trapped gas is not forced out.

“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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