Name: Nut Cake
Ingredients: 1 lb sugar; 1 lb butter; 3 eggs; 2 cups milk; 1 lb flour; 1 oz baking powder; 1 cup hickory or walnut kernels

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 ↓

Nut 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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, beat the sugar, butter, and eggs until creamy.
Gradually stir in the milk and flour.
Fold in the hickory or walnut kernels gently.

Bake

Pour the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake until golden.
For small cakes, roll the dough to ¼ inch thick, cut into shapes, and bake on buttered tins.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Eggs: Add structure and help bind the batter while creaming gives it lift.
Flour: Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and, when creamed with butter, helps trap air for texture.
Hickory or walnut kernels: Add nutty flavor and a textural contrast to the crumb.