Name: Gold or Lemon Cake
Ingredients: two cups of sugar; four cups of sifted flour; one pound of arrowroot; a cup of butter; a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in half a cup of sweet milk; a cup of sweet milk; a pound of pounded white sugar; a pound of butter; six eggs

Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Gold or Lemon Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the beaten yolks and the flour, beating hard for several minutes.
Add the lemon or orange and bake, frosting if liked.
Beat the butter to a cream.
Stir in the sugar and arrowroot gradually, beating the mixture.
Whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth.
Add them to the other ingredients and beat well for twenty minutes.
Put in whichever of the above flavorings may be preferred.

Bake

Pour the cake into a buttered mold or tin and bake it in a moderate oven from one to one and a half hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories

27 gProtein

26 gFat

120 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 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
Arrowroot	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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together525 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 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).

Flour and butter 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: Yolks add richness and set the structure, while whipped whites add lift and airiness.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Arrowroot: Starch that makes the crumb fine and tender.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped whites. The whites trap air that lifts the cake as it bakes. Beating them into the batter for a long time can knock that air out, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the arrowroot

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

Sweet potatofits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Arrowrootthe original
Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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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Gold or Lemon Cake