Name: Lena Kracht
Ingredients: three tablespoons of sugar; one tablespoon of butter melted; one cup of milk; one-half teaspoons of baking powder; two eggs; two heaping cups of flour sifted; salt; lemon rind; mace

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 ↓

Lena Kracht

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat two eggs, add three tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of melted butter, a level teaspoon of salt, a little lemon rind or mace, and mix thoroughly.
Add one cup of milk and two heaping cups of sifted flour with one and one-half teaspoons of baking powder.

Bake

Put the batter in a greased coffee cake pan, sprinkle with brown sugar, bits of butter, and finely chopped walnuts.
Bake about forty-five minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories

28 gProtein

26 gFat

124 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Mace	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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).
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).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

Swap the mace

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Parsleyfits better
Macethe original

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