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Dessert

Sour Milk Cake

A chocolate cake made with sour milk, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sour Milk 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the egg and mix well.

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa, and spice.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the sour milk.

  3. Fold in the chopped raisins.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

  2. Let cool before frosting.

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.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise and gives a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture when creamed with sugar.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft crumb when creamed with butter.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Alternating dry ingredients with sour milk. Adding the dry ingredients gradually and alternating with the sour milk keeps the batter smooth and evenly mixed. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk, cocoa powder, raisin. 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.

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