Name: Devil's Food Cake
Ingredients: two cups sugar; 2 cup but- termilk; 2 cup of boiling water; 3 cups of flour; 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla; 2 cups sugar; 2 cup of sweet milk; 3 eggs

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,187 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Two cups sugar ; I cup butter (cream the butter and sugar first), next add 3 eggs, (reserving whites to add last) ; l/2 cup but- termilk; i cup of grated chocolate; ^2 cup of boiling water; i tea- spoonful of soda. Put your soda in the chocolate then pour over the boiling water. Be sure the water is boiling. Mix this with the buttermilk and pour over the mixture of butter ; sugar and eggs. Then add 3 cups of flour, (the quantity of flour all depends upon the grade. The dough should be thicker than for ordinary cake) ; add whites of eggs, 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla.
Filling: — il/2 cups sugar; l/2 cup of sweet milk; butter, (the size of a walnut) ; 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla. Boil till it forms a ball when dropped into cold water. Take off the range and whip till it thickens. Spread on the cake and sprinkle with nuts.
Mrs. L. R. Stumpf,

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together19,241 recipes

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

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together78,219 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

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

Vanillathe original
Raisinabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).