Why it works: Milk and butter 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
10 cakesIngredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, place 2 pounds of flour and make a hole in the center without touching the bottom.
Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of lukewarm milk and pour it into the hole.
Add 2 beaten eggs and 6 ounces of melted butter mixed with ½ cup of hot water.
Stir in enough flour to achieve a thick cream consistency, cover with flour, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.
Knead the dough, adding more lukewarm milk as needed, until smooth.
Make 2-3 gashes on the surface, cover with a warm towel, and let rise until light, about 1 hour.
Shape and bake
Divide the dough into 10 equal portions and shape into 4-inch cakes.
Place on a baking tin, prick with a fork, and let rise for 10 minutes.
Bake in a moderately heated oven (350°F) until lightly golden, not hard.
Serve
Serve warm, either halved and toasted with butter or reheated in the oven.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough that holds the cakes together.
- German yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help bind the dough and give it structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and feeds the yeast.
The step that matters
Stirring in flour and kneading to a smooth dough. The dough needs enough flour to hold its shape but not so much that it becomes stiff. Kneading develops gluten, which traps the gas from the yeast so the cakes rise light and even.
“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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