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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Rub the powdered sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs well, then gradually add them to the sugar mixture.
Stir in the brandy and your choice of flavoring.
Fold in the flour; for a lighter cake, add a little baking powder.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.
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 + 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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Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when creamed with butter for a light crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air that lightens the batter.
- Eggs
- Provide structure as they set in the oven and add moisture and richness.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise, making it lighter.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavor to the cake.
The step that matters
Add the eggs gradually. Adding beaten eggs a little at a time lets each addition blend into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them all at once can make the batter curdle and trap less air, which leads to a denser cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, brandy, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, brandy, flour. 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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