Name: Cheap Devil's Food
Ingredients: 3 squares of chocolate; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon soda; 1 teaspoon royce's vanilla; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon^ butter; 1 rounded cup of flour; 2 layers

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cheap Devil's Food

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Melt 3 squares of chocolate.
Mix the melted chocolate with the yolks of 2 eggs, 1 cup granulated sugar, and 1 tablespoon butter. Stir the mixture well.
Add 1 cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon Royce's vanilla, and 1 rounded cup of flour.

Bake and finish

Bake in 2 layers or as a solid cake.
Apply any icing preferred.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1000Calories

29 gProtein

35 gFat

138 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12

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

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Chocolate: Provides the deep color and rich flavor that give devil's food cake its name.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Sour milk: Acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and tenderize the crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Eggs: Yolks add richness and emulsify the batter, adding structure and moisture.
Flour: Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.

“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.