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Dessert

Buckwheat Cake

A baked buckwheat cake made with egg, molasses, sour milk, sour cream, baking soda, and buckwheat flour.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, molasses, sour milk, sour cream, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add buckwheat flour until you achieve a thin batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased bread tin.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buckwheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and flour 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

Egg
Binds the batter and helps the cake set as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and sour cream to make the cake rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds a tangy flavour.
Sour cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich flavour.
Buckwheat flour
Provides the main structure and a nutty, earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the buckwheat flour. The batter must be thin as the record states; adding flour too quickly or too much can create lumps and a dense cake. Stir gradually so the flour hydrates evenly and the baking soda can work throughout the batter.

Swap the buckwheat

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, molasses, milk, cream, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Buckwheatthe original
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, milk, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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