Skip to main content
Main

Rye Drop Cakes

A simple batter of rye meal, flour, baking powder, salt, molasses, milk, and egg cooked as drop cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Rye Drop Cakes

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Drop Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix and sift the rye meal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Gradually add the milk, then stir in the molasses and the beaten egg.

Cook

  1. Cook the mixture in a skillet like fried drop cakes.

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.

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.

  1. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  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. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Rye meal
Gives the cakes a dense, earthy flavour and a darker crumb than wheat flour alone.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten structure so the batter holds together in the skillet.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, lifting the batter so the cakes rise and turn light.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and loosens the batter to a drop consistency.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture in a skillet like fried drop cakes.. The batter must be cooked over moderate heat so the outside browns before the centre sets. Too hot and the sugars in the molasses scorch while the middle stays raw; too cool and the cakes spread and turn greasy.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes