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Dessert

Gems of Rye Meal

A light, sweet cake made with rye meal, flour, eggs, milk, and butter.

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

Gems of Rye Meal

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Heat iron gem pans.

  3. Brush the pans with butter.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix rye meal, flour, and salt.

  2. Beat the egg yolks.

  3. Stir in sweet milk and sugar.

  4. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients.

  5. Beat the batter well.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  7. Fold the egg whites into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into the pans.

  2. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks and folded in, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter, adding richness, moisture and structure as it sets.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Rye meal
Gives the cake its distinct flavor and a denser, more tender crumb than wheat alone.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and rye for the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff egg whites trap air that makes the cake rise. Overmixing or deflating them while folding releases that air, leaving a flatter, denser cake.

“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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