Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound Cakes
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).
In a large clean pan, warm the butter until it is warm.
Stir the butter around the sides until it becomes a smooth cream.
Make the batter
Gradually add the sugar and mix together for a few minutes.
Break the eggs into the pan one at a time, stirring continuously.
Beat the mixture well for five minutes.
Lightly stir in the flour and fill the cake pans.
If it's hot outside, you can skip warming the butter.
If it's cold, keep the butter close to the oven to prevent it from chilling.
Bake
Quickly transfer the batter to the pans and place them in the oven.
Bake until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out dry.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it traps air for a tender crumb.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air in the creamed batter for a fine texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set, along with moisture and richness to the batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
The step that matters
Lightly stir in the flour. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Stirring just until combined keeps the crumb tender.
“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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