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Dessert

Yorkshire Tea-cakes

A yeasted cake made with flour, yeast, sugar, salt, lard, buttermilk, baked until golden.

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

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. 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. Cream the yeast with 1 teaspoon of sugar.

  2. Warm the buttermilk (do not curdle).

  3. Add the warm buttermilk to the yeast mixture.

  4. Rub the remaining sugar, salt, and lard into the flour.

  5. Gradually pour in the yeast and buttermilk mixture.

Rise and shape

  1. Cover the bowl with a cloth.

  2. Place the bowl near a warm spot to rise.

  3. Once risen, knead in enough flour until the dough is manageable.

  4. Place the dough into tins.

  5. Let the dough rise until it reaches the top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 that holds the gas produced by the yeast.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the cakes soft.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and slight acidity that gives the dough a tender texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Warming the buttermilk without curdling it. Buttermilk that gets too hot curdles and loses its smooth texture, and yeast works best in gently warm liquid. Overheating can also kill the yeast, so the dough may fail to rise.

“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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