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Buckwheat Cakes

A yeast-leavened buckwheat batter cooked on a griddle to make thin cakes served hot with molasses.

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. Mix the buckwheat flour and corn meal together.

  2. Make a hole in the center and pour in the yeast and salt.

  3. Add enough warm water to make a thin batter and beat well.

  4. Cover the mixture with a cloth and set it in a warm place to rise for about 4 hours.

Cook and serve

  1. When risen and bubbly, heat and grease a griddle.

  2. Scoop enough batter to make 3 cakes and pour onto the griddle.

  3. Brown one side, then turn with a broad knife and brown the other side.

  4. Serve hot with molasses.

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. Buckwheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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 main body of the pancakes and gives them their earthy, nutty flavour.
Yeast
Ferments the batter so it rises and becomes bubbly before cooking.
Indian corn meal
Adds a coarser texture and some body to the batter alongside the buckwheat flour.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, rich flavour when served with the cakes.

The step that matters

Let the batter rise fully before cooking. Yeast needs time in a warm place to produce gas and bubbles. Cooking before the batter is risen and bubbly leaves the pancakes dense and under-leavened.

Swap the buckwheat

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, corn, 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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