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Semolina Cakes

Semolina cakes are fried cakes made from milk, butter, semolina, cheese, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Semolina Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the semolina base

  1. Boil the milk with butter and salt.

  2. Gradually add semolina, stirring until thickened like custard, about 15 minutes.

  3. Stir in grated cheese and white pepper.

  4. Spread the mixture on a floured board.

  5. Let it cool until solid enough to form cakes.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat the cakes in egg and breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry until golden brown, or dip in batter and fry.

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. Semolina + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a custard-like mass that sets firm when cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid that semolina swells in, giving the mixture its creamy body.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness to the set mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the coating so breadcrumbs stick and help the cakes brown.

The step that matters

Gradually add semolina, stirring until thickened. Adding semolina slowly while stirring prevents lumps. The grains must cook fully so the mixture thickens and will set firm enough to shape once cooled.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, semolina, cheese, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, semolina, cheese, flour. 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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