Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, beating for 10 minutes.
Beat the yolks of 9 eggs until thick and lemon colored, then gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture, beating again.
Sift the flour three times and add it slowly while beating continuously.
After adding the flour, beat for 15 minutes.
Add the rosewater and sherry, then beat again.
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.
Bake
Pour the batter into a tube pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, aerated structure when creamed with butter.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and emulsify the batter; whites, folded in, add lift and lightness.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that lightens the cake. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and yields a dense cake.
“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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