Skip to main content
Dessert

Fried Rye Cakes

A quick fried cake made from rye meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, and egg.

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

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 ↓

Fried Rye Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. Stir in the milk and the beaten egg until well combined.

Fry

  1. Drop the mixture by teaspoons into deep, hot fat.

  2. Cook until they turn over, brown, and do not stick to the fork.

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 + 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the main gluten structure that holds the cakes together while they fry.
Rye meal
Adds earthy flavor and a tender, slightly dense crumb with little gluten structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cakes to rise and become light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets during frying.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and meal into a spoonable batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the outside brown during frying.

The step that matters

Frying in deep, hot fat. If the fat is too cool, the batter soaks up oil and the cakes turn greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives a golden, fully cooked 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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes