Name: Tea Cakes
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup sugar; ½ cup lukewarm water or milk; 2 cups flour; 2 eggs; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; 2 teaspoons baking powder

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Tea Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the butter until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar, then the lukewarm water or milk, and the flour, beating well.
Add the beaten eggs, nutmeg, and baking powder.

Bake and serve

Bake in heart-shaped pans or gem pans.
Ice with pink icing if desired, or serve plain.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour 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

Butter: Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the cakes and, when beaten with butter, helps hold air for a light texture.
Flour: Provides the main structure that sets as the cakes bake.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and become light.