Name: A Cheap Plain Cake
Ingredients: 2 lbs flour; ½ lb fresh butter; 1 lb moist sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 packets baking powder; ½ lb candied peel; milk or water (as needed)

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 ↓

A Cheap Plain Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, butter, sugar, salt, and baking powder thoroughly.
Finely shred the candied peel and gently stir it into the mixture to avoid breaking the shreds.
Add enough milk or water to form a stiff batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into a well-greased tin and bake for about 2 hours.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and lightens.
Candied peel: Adds bursts of citrus sweetness and aroma throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gently stirring in the candied peel. Folding the shredded peel in gently keeps the shreds intact and spreads them evenly. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the crumb tough and dense.

“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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A Cheap Plain Cake