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Dessert

Rye Cakes

A batter of rye, Indian meal, and wheat flour baked into cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rye Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix rye flour, Indian meal, and wheat flour in a bowl.

  2. Add cold water or milk to create a batter.

  3. Stir in salt, molasses, and enough yeast to make it rise.

  4. Just before baking, fold in the beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease cake pans and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake until golden brown and serve hot.

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 + wheattop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Forms the main structure of the batter and gives the cakes their earthy flavor.
Indian meal
Adds a coarse, grainy texture to the cakes.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten for structure and helps the cakes hold their shape.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise before baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deeper flavor, and feeds the yeast.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg just before baking. Yeast gas is released steadily once the batter is mixed. Adding the egg late keeps the batter from losing its rise while it waits, so the cakes stay light when they hit the oven.

“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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