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Dessert

Lucy's Rye Cakes

A simple rye cake made with rye meal, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, and milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Lucy's Rye Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine rye meal, eggs, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  2. Mix in enough milk to achieve a thick batter, similar to pound cake.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the batter into hearts and rounds.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Serve

  1. Serve hot for breakfast or tea.

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

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

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Rye + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Rye meal
Forms the main body of the cakes, though rye has little gluten to hold a firm structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the cakes set in the oven.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Releases carbon dioxide when combined with an acid, lifting the batter during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture and turns the mixture into a thick batter that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Mix in enough milk for a thick batter. Rye meal absorbs liquid differently from wheat flour. Too much milk makes the batter spread and bake flat, while too little leaves the cakes dry and 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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