Name: Miss Cora Chase, Rosemond, Ill
Ingredients: one pound of sifted sugar; half pound of flour; half pounds of pul- verized sugar; ten eggs; one lemon; three eggs; half leition left from cake

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Miss Cora Chase, Rosemond, Ill

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

Combine ten eggs, one pound of sifted sugar and a half pound of flour, flavored with the grated rind and half the juice of one lemon.
Make into sponge cake batter and bake in jelly pans.

Make the icing and assemble

Beat the whites of three eggs with one and a half pounds of pulverized sugar, the grated rind and juice of a sour orange, and the juice of the half lemon left from the cake.
Make into icing and spread between the layers of cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

594Calories

20 gProtein

7 gFat

112 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Cake	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 Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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: Provide structure and lift in the sponge, and the whites form the foam base of the icing.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and icing and helps keep the crumb tender.
Flour: Gives the sponge cake its structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Lemon: Adds acidity and aroma to both the cake and the icing.