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Dessert

Rye Drops

A fried batter made from rye flour, buttermilk, sugar, egg, baking soda, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, sugar, beaten egg, baking soda, and cinnamon.

  2. Add rye flour gradually to make a stiff batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan until boiling.

  2. Drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the boiling lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown and serve hot.

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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cinnamon + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 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

Buttermilk
Adds acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter and adds tang.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the drops rise and turn light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure so the drops hold their shape in hot fat.
Rye flour
Provides the base structure and flavor; it forms a stiff batter that holds together when fried.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling lard. The lard must be at a steady boil before the batter goes in. If the fat is too cool, the drops soak up grease and turn heavy; if the drops are added too quickly, the fat temperature drops and cooking becomes uneven.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, sugar, egg, rye, flour):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, sugar, egg, rye, flour. 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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