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Dessert

Tea-cakes

A yeast-leavened dough made with flour, butter, egg, and milk, baked into cakes.

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 ↓

Tea-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt, then rub in the butter or lard.

  2. Make a well in the center, pour in the yeast dissolved in a little warm milk, and add the egg.

  3. Gradually mix in enough warm milk to form a smooth paste, then knead well.

  4. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into cakes and place them in tins to rise again.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake the cakes for 30 to 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve warm, buttered, and enjoy.

  2. For stale cakes, split and toast or dip in milk or water, then heat in the oven.

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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 main structure of the dough once mixed with liquid and kneaded.
Butter or lard
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the dough and helps bind it together.
Distillery yeast
Produces gas during rising, which leavens the dough and makes it light.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour to form the dough and helps activate the yeast.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled in size. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Under-proofed dough stays dense, while the rise must be done in a warm place for steady fermentation.

“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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