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Buckwheat Cakes

A batter of buckwheat flour, yeast, salt, Indian meal, and molasses cooked on a griddle.

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 Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine buckwheat flour, yeast, salt, Indian meal, and molasses.

  2. Add warm water gradually to create a thin batter and beat well.

  3. Cover the bowl and set it in a warm place to rise.

Cook

  1. If the batter is sour in the morning, add a little baking soda.

  2. Cook on a hot griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buckwheat + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 flour
Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the pancakes their earthy, nutty flavor.
Yeast
Ferments the thin batter so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor, and helps the pancakes brown.
Baking soda (in the method)
Neutralizes acidity in a sour batter, mellowing its tang.

The step that matters

Let the batter rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth to ferment and leaven the thin batter. In a cool spot the rise is slow and weak, and the batter may turn sour before the pancakes are light.

Swap the buckwheat

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses. 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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