Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Vermont Yeast Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Mix white wheat flour with enough water to make a thick batter.
Let the batter rise until light.
Stir in cornmeal to form a stiff dough.
Allow the dough to rise again.
Roll the dough very thin and cut into 3-inch squares.
Dry the squares in the shade on a clear, windy day until perfectly dry.
Tie the dried squares in a bag and hang in a cool, dry place.
To use, soak one cake in 1 pint of lukewarm water until dissolved.
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.
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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