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 ↓
Wine Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Combine one pound sugar, ten ounces butter, eight eggs, one pound and ten ounces flour, one pennyweight soda, two of cream of tartar, three fourths pint milk, and lemon juice.
Beat butter and sugar until light, adding eggs gradually.
Add milk, lemon juice, cream of tartar, soda, and flour.
Prepare and bake
Dust cake moulds with sugar.
Pour batter into moulds and bake in a moderate oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, when beaten with butter, helps create a light texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they are beaten in.
- Flour (in the method)
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Beating butter and sugar until light. Creaming beats air into the fat, and the eggs are added gradually so the mixture does not split. Trapped air expands in the oven and gives the cake its lift and fine crumb.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg. 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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