Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Sally Lunn
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar with the milk.
Combine all ingredients to form a stiff batter.
Pour the batter into pie pans.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
Stack the baked pieces on a plate with melted butter in between.
Cut through the stack as you would serve a pie and serve hot.
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.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that lifts the bread.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the milk so it reacts with the baking soda, helping the bread rise.
- Sweet milk
- Moistens the flour and supplies the liquid that hydrates the batter and helps browning.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and keeps the stacked pieces moist and tender.
The step that matters
Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar with the milk. Baking soda and cream of tartar must react with the liquid while the batter is mixed and baked. Letting the mixture sit too long loses gas, so the bread may rise poorly.
“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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