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Breakfast

Yorkshir*^ Cakes for Breakfast

A yeasted batter cake made with flour, salt, sugar, butter, and milk, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Yorkshir*^ Cakes for Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Set a sponge with a little good yeast.

  2. When well risen, mix in the flour, salt, sugar, and butter.

  3. Mould the mixture with your hands and form into medium-sized cakes.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the cakes in a warm spot to rise.

  2. Bake until done, then serve buttered or toasted and buttered.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the cakes together.
Good yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the cakes rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer crumb and rich flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps bind the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Let the sponge rise fully before mixing. The yeast needs time to become active and build gas in the sponge. Mixing in the flour too early leaves too little lift, so the cakes come out dense rather than light.

“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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