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 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
In a separate bowl, cream together the egg yolks, sugar, and butter.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites, milk, and flour mixed with baking powder.
Mix until you have a smooth batter, then flavor to your taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into a square shallow pan and bake.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air for lift, while the yolks add richness and tender texture.
- Butter
- Fat coats flour proteins and gluten, giving a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake, tenderizes the crumb, and helps the surface brown.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing it to rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Stirring vigorously knocks out the air trapped in the whipped whites, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Folding in slowly keeps the foam intact for lift.
“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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