Why it works: Milk and rye work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 918 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Rye Drop Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine sour milk, eggs, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add sifted rye meal until the batter is thick but spreadable.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased muffin tin.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
-
Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + spreadtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together165 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Egg + spreadtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together250 recipes
-
Egg + ryetop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together484 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the cakes structure and hold them together.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to lift the batter as it bakes.
- Rye meal
- Provides the flour base and structure, with a distinct earthy flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the rye meal. Rye flour absorbs liquid and forms gluten less readily than wheat, so adding it gradually and stopping when the batter is thick but spreadable keeps the texture tender rather than dense or stiff.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.