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 ↓
Indian Loaf Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix a tea-cup full of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of butter, adding a salt-spoonful of salt.
Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet, and set it on coals till it is scalding hot.
Then take it off, and scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as will make it of the consistency of thick boiled mush.
Beat the whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to cool.
Add eggs and yeast
While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk.
Add a tea-cup full of good strong yeast, and beat the whole another quarter of an hour.
Add a salt-spoon of pearl-ash, or sal-aratus, dissolved in a little water to improve the mixture.
Bake and serve
Then have ready a turban mould or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse the heat through the middle of the cake).
Butter the pan very well, as Indian meal is apt to stick.
Put in the mixture, cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise.
Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven.
When done, turn it out, placing the broad surface downwards, and serve hot and whole.
Cut it into slices, and eat it with butter.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yellow indian meal (in the method)
- Forms the bulk of the cake, thickening into a mush that sets into the crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the cake hold its shape as it bakes.
- Yeast (in the method)
- Produces gas that makes the batter rise before baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and keeps the crumb moist.
- Rich milk
- Provides liquid to cook the meal into a mush and adds richness.
The step that matters
Scalding the milk and beating the mush. The milk must be hot enough to swell and cook the cornmeal, and beating develops the batter's texture. Adding eggs or yeast while the mixture is still too hot would harm the yeast and could scramble the eggs.
“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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