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 ↓
Batter-Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar in a bowl.
In the evening, mix the dry ingredients and let them rise overnight.
In the morning, melt the butter and beat the eggs well.
Add the melted butter and beaten eggs to the mixture.
If the batter is sour, dissolve a little baking soda and stir it in.
Shape and bake
Knead the dough lightly and shape it into cakes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake immediately for best results.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cakes together as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cakes rise and become light.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in the batter to add lift and neutralise sourness.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add moisture and richness to the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour.
- Milk or water
- Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to a workable consistency.
The step that matters
Bake immediately after shaping. Once the batter is mixed and shaped, the leavening gases start to escape and the rising power fades. Baking straight away keeps the cakes light.
“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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