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 ↓
Orange 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, break the yolks of the eggs and add sugar, butter, and orange juice; beat until light and creamy.
Add the milk and the beaten egg whites, mixing well.
Sift the flour with baking soda and cream of tartar, then gradually add to the mixture.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into four greased jelly tins.
Bake until golden brown.
Once cooled, layer with lemon butter and ice the top.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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
- Yolks add richness and moisture, while beaten whites add lift and structure to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, tenderness, and helps the cake brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to produce lift and a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Add the sifted flour gradually and mix only until combined. Overmixing develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense rather than light.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream. 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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