Name: Banana Cake with Chocolate, Sultanas and Walnuts
Ingredients: 1/2 cup sultanas; 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped; 1 cup chocolate, roughly chopped; 125g butter; 3/4 cup castor sugar; 2 eggs; 1 1/4 cups ripe mashed banana; 2 cups self-raising flour; 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda; 1/4 cup milk; 1 teaspoon lemon juice

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 ↓

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).
Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Banana + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,470 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together508 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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: Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a tender, fine crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Self-raising flour: Forms the cake's structure once baked, holding the fruit and nuts in place.
Ripe mashed banana: Adds moisture and sweetness, keeping the crumb soft.
Bicarbonate soda: Reacts with the acidic lemon juice and milk to help the cake rise.
Castor sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and flour. Adding flour to the curdled banana mixture and then the milk and remaining flour lets the batter smooth out gradually. Adding everything at once can overwork the batter, making the crumb dense and tough.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, chocolate, butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk):

Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, chocolate, butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12

Banana Cake with Chocolate, Sultanas and Walnuts