Name: Drop Cakes
Ingredients: ⅔ cup rye meal; ⅔ cup all-purpose flour; 2½ teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons molasses; ½ cup milk; 1 egg

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Drop Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, sift together the rye meal, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Gradually add the milk, molasses, and beaten egg to the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined.

Cook

Cook the mixture in a skillet like fried drop cakes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Gives the cakes a hearty, slightly earthy flavour and a coarser texture.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main gluten structure that holds the drop cakes together.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and turn light.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

“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.