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Dessert

Yorkshire Parkin

A sweet oat cake made with oatmeal, syrup, butter, sugar, ginger, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Yorkshire Parkin

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.

  1. Melt the butter in the syrup.

  2. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

  3. For best results, mix the ingredients a day before baking.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Scotch oatmeal
Provides the bulk and chewy, crumbly texture of the cake.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake stay soft and sticky.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Ground ginger
Gives the cake its warm, spiced aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Mix the ingredients a day before baking. Resting lets the oatmeal absorb the syrup and butter, so the mixture softens and the flavours mellow before it is baked.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, butter, sugar, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, butter, sugar, milk. 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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