Name: Pound Cake Drops
Ingredients: 7 lbs all-purpose flour; 5 lbs butter, softened; 2 oz baking powder; 6 large eggs; 8 lbs soft flour; Flavoring: mace, vanilla, lemon, or none

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Cake Drops

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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix the softened butter and both types of flour together.
Add the baking powder and eggs, and mix until well combined.
Add your choice of flavoring to the batter before baking.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto dusted baking pans or parchment paper.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,405 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Flour + macetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,974 recipes

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

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness, and helps give the drops their pound-cake texture.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that holds the drops together as they bake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the drops rise and become lighter.