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Dessert

Yorkshire Tea-Cakes

A yeast‑leavened cake made with flour, milk, butter, yeast, salt, and egg, baked in a moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Yorkshire Tea-Cakes

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Yorkshire 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Put the flour in a bowl and rub the butter into it.

  2. Warm the milk and blend it with the yeast, then strain it into the flour.

  3. Add the egg and beat everything together for a few minutes.

  4. Knead the dough lightly, then divide it into two balls.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the balls in floured cake tins and let them rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

  3. Brush the tops with a little milk or egg white to glaze.

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. Milk + buttertop 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 that holds the dough and sets as it bakes.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough bind and bake tender.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the dough brown lightly on the surface.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth to ferment and produce gas. If the dough rises too little, the tea cakes will be dense; if it rises too long, they may collapse or taste sour.

“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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