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Dessert

Rye Cakes for Tha

A rye and wheat flour cake flavored with sour milk, molasses, and baking soda, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 for Tha

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the rye flour and wheat flour.

  2. Add the sour milk and baking soda; stir until foaming.

  3. Incorporate the salt and molasses, mixing until stiff.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered pan and smooth the top with a spoon dipped in hot water.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

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
Provides the main structure and the distinctive earthy flavour of the cakes.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten to give the batter more structure and a lighter crumb than rye alone.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk, releasing carbon dioxide that leavens the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, dark colour to the cakes.

The step that matters

Adding the sour milk and baking soda. Once the baking soda meets the acid in the sour milk, it starts releasing gas right away. The batter should be transferred and baked promptly so the bubbles are trapped before they escape, which keeps the cakes from falling flat.

“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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