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Dessert

Meal Drop-Nuts

A batter of meal, rye flour, syrup, baking soda, cream of tartar, and milk baked into a drop cake served warm with butter and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Meal Drop-Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the meal, rye flour, syrup, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  3. Add enough milk to form a batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop the batter into greased pans.

  2. Bake for half an hour.

  3. Serve warm with butter and syrup.

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. Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Meal
Makes up the bulk of the batter, giving the nuts their body and structure.
Rye flour
Adds structure and a distinct earthy flavour to the batter.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda, helping the nuts rise.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients so they form a drop-able batter.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Add milk gradually until the batter is moist enough to hold its shape when dropped. Too little milk leaves dry, crumbly nuts, and too much makes them spread and bake dense.

“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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