Why it works: Cream and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,532 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Baking Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Powder the ingredients and sift them together several times to ensure they are well mixed.
Always mix the baking powder with the flour before adding other ingredients.
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.
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Cream + corntop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda to release carbon dioxide for rising.
- Baking soda
- Supplies the alkaline base that reacts with the acid to produce gas for leavening.
- Corn-starch
- Absorbs moisture and keeps the acid and base apart so the powder stays dry and stable.
The step that matters
Sifting the ingredients together thoroughly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of acid or base, so some batches rise unevenly or taste bitter or soapy. Repeated sifting distributes the powder evenly so each reaction is consistent.
“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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