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Dessert

New England Drop Cakes

A fried batter cake made with rye flour, cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, molasses, sour milk, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

New England Drop Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the rye flour, cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, molasses, salt, baking soda dissolved in a little hot water, and sour milk until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into deep boiling lard.

  2. Fry until golden brown and cooked through.

  3. Serve warm.

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. Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Provides the main structure and a dense, hearty texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the cakes as they cook.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor, and helps browning.
Cornmeal
Gives the cakes a coarse, slightly crisp texture and a corn flavor.

The step that matters

Dropping the batter into the lard. The lard must be deep and fully boiling so the batter sets quickly on contact. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb grease and turn heavy, while the baking soda's rising gas escapes before the crust forms.

“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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