Why it works: Buckwheat and molasses work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 199 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Buckwheat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Scald the Indian meal with enough water to swell it.
When cool, mix the Indian meal with the buckwheat meal and enough warm water to combine.
Add the salt, molasses, and yeast (dissolved in a little water) to the mixture.
Beat the mixture for five to six minutes and let it rise in a warm place overnight, covered with a thick cloth.
Rise and bake
In the morning, beat the batter again and let it rise near the fire.
Just before baking, dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and stir it into the batter.
Bake the cakes on a griddle and serve immediately.
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 + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Buckwheat meal
- Provides the main flavour and body of the cakes, forming the bulk of the batter.
- Indian meal
- Scalded first to swell and thicken the batter, giving the cakes a softer, more tender crumb.
- Yeast
- Ferments the batter over the long rise, making it light and airy with a tangy flavour.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and depth, and feeds the yeast during fermentation.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the fermented batter's acidity to produce gas, adding extra lift and browning.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda just before baking. Baking soda reacts with acids in the batter right away and releases gas. If it sits too long before cooking, the gas escapes and the cakes lose lift, so it should be stirred in just before the griddle.
“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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