Skip to main content
Bread

Graham Cakes

A simple cake made with Graham flour, white flour, butter, molasses, cream of tartar, baking soda, and milk or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Graham Cakes

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 ↓

Graham Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift cream of tartar and baking soda into the white flour.

  2. Do not sift the Graham flour; rub it well with the white flour.

  3. Thoroughly rub in the butter or shortening.

  4. Wet the mixture with milk or water until it is not too stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut it into cakes.

  2. Bake in a quiet oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Graham flour
Gives the cakes a coarse, hearty texture and nutty flavor.
White flour
Provides the main structure so the dough holds its shape when rolled and cut.
Butter or shortening
Coats flour particles to tenderize the crumb and add richness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the cakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, leavening the cakes.

The step that matters

Wet the mixture until it is not too stiff. Too little liquid leaves dry, crumbly cakes that will not hold together, while too much makes the dough sticky and hard to cut. The flour needs enough moisture to hydrate and bind, so add liquid gradually.

“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

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes