Name: Chocolate Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; ½ cup butter; 1 egg, beaten; 2 squares chocolate, melted; ½ cup sweet milk; 1½ cups flour; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup chopped nuts; 1 teaspoon vanilla

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate 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 batter

Cream together the sugar and butter, then add the beaten egg.
Melt the chocolate over hot water and stir it into the milk.
Combine the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture.
Fold in the chopped nuts.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto an inverted pan.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together638 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter: Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich texture.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the cake together.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Chocolate: Gives the cake its chocolate flavour and deep color.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps it brown and stay moist.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, chocolate, milk, flour, vanilla):

Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Chestnutfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, chocolate, milk, flour, vanilla. 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.