Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Buckwheat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
In a jar, combine tepid water, salt, and yeast.
Make a smooth batter with buckwheat flour of medium thickness.
In the morning, beat the batter well; do not add baking soda for the first or second baking.
Reserve 1 pint of batter for the next rising before adding baking soda.
For a variation, mix in 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon baking soda to the batter.
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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Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together660 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Buckwheat + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together224 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Swap the buckwheat
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg):
- Jalapenofits better
- Buckwheatthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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