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Dessert

Railroad Cake

A baked lemon puff made from butter, flour, sugar, milk, eggs and lemon, eaten cold or hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Railroad Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Stir sugar, butter and flour over heat in a saucepan until well mixed.

  2. Have the milk boiling, then stir it in gradually.

  3. Cook all over the heat until done, stirring all the time.

  4. Set the saucepan in a vessel of boiling water.

  5. Pour the mixture into a bowl.

Finish and bake

  1. When quite cool, stir in the seasoning: acid of 2 lemons or juice of 1, or chocolate, or whatever you like.

  2. Stir in the 8 yolks, then fold in the whites beaten very light.

  3. Pour into a baking dish and bake 25 or 30 minutes.

  4. Serve either cold or hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

896Calories
28 gProtein
32 gFat
124 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice 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.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Whites beaten light trap air, giving the cake its puffed, airy structure when baked.
Flour
Forms the thickened base with butter and milk, giving the cake its body and structure.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the base mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to its tender texture and browning.
Milk
Combines with the flour and butter to form a smooth, thick base.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright flavor to the cooled base.

The step that matters

Fold in the whites beaten very light. Whites hold air only when beaten lightly and folded gently; overmixing or deflating them loses the lift that makes the cake puff while baking.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, sugar, cream, 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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