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Buckwheat Cakes

Buckwheat cakes are a griddle-baked batter made with buckwheat flour, molasses, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Buckwheat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix warm water, salt, molasses, and buckwheat flour to a griddle cake consistency.

  2. Let the mixture stand overnight.

Finish and cook

  1. In the morning, add baking soda and cream of tartar, thinning the batter if necessary.

  2. Bake immediately on a very hot griddle.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Buckwheat + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 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

Buckwheat flour
Forms the main structure and the earthy, nutty flavour of the pancakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the pancakes.
Cream of tartar
Supplies acid that reacts with the baking soda to create rising bubbles.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour, and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Bake immediately on a very hot griddle. Once baking soda and cream of tartar are added, the leavening gas starts forming and escapes over time. A hot griddle sets the batter quickly, so the pancakes rise well and do not turn flat or dense.

Swap the buckwheat

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, cream):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Buckwheatthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, cream. 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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