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Yorkshire Tea-cakes

A yeasted cake made with flour, milk, butter, egg, yeast, and sugar, baked in a tin.

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.

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a hole in the center; drop in the unbeaten egg.

  2. Warm the butter and milk until tepid.

  3. Cream the yeast and sugar in a small bowl, then pour in the warm milk and melted butter.

  4. Strain this mixture onto the flour and egg, and work into a light dough.

  5. Beat the dough well, then turn it onto a floured board.

Shape and rise

  1. Divide the dough into two pieces, shape into round cakes, and place in a well-buttered tin.

  2. Cover the tin with kitchen paper and let it rise in a warm place for an hour.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for twenty minutes.

  2. Just before done, brush the top with milk and return to the oven.

  3. Once baked, carefully turn out and place on a sieve to cool.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 structure of the dough once worked with liquid and egg.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
German yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Provides moisture to hydrate the flour and softens the crumb; brushed on top it helps browning.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth to produce gas steadily; if the dough is too cold it rises slowly and bakes up dense, while excess heat can kill the yeast.

“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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