Name: Coffee Cake
Ingredients: 1 heaping tablespoon butter; 1 heaping tablespoon sugar; 1 egg, beaten separately; 1 cup flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; Milk, enough to make the consistency of cake dough; Additional butter, for topping; Sugar, for sprinkling; Cinnamon, for sprinkling

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 ↓

Coffee Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the beaten egg and mix well.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Add milk until the batter reaches a cake dough consistency.

Top and bake

Pour the batter into a pie plate.
Dot the top with pieces of butter.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Bake until golden.
Eat hot.

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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour: Provides the main structure of the cake as its starches set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and browns the top when dotted on.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps the top brown as it bakes.

“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.