Name: Chocolate Potato Cake
Ingredients: ½ cup butter or other fat; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 cup sugar; 2 squares chocolate; 1½ cups riced potato; 6 teaspoons baking powder; 2 eggs; 1½ cups wheat flour; ½ cup milk

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Chocolate Potato Cake

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 the butter and gradually add the sugar.
Add the well-beaten eggs and warm riced potatoes, then beat well.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the mixture, along with enough milk to form a cake dough.

Bake

Bake for about 35 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together235 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour: Provides the starch and gluten that build the cake's structure.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
Riced potato: Adds moisture and a tender, soft crumb to the cake.
Butter or other fat: Adds richness and a tender texture by coating the flour particles.
Chocolate: Contributes deep flavor and a darker color to the cake.

Swap the potato

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

Sweet potatofits about as well
Potatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Arrowrootfits about as well

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