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Dessert

Rich Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with walnuts and citron, baked in a loaf pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Rich Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the brown sugar while beating constantly.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and milk, then mix in the flour.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in cold water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Melt the chocolate with the brown sugar, milk, and egg yolk in a double boiler until thick.

  2. Let the chocolate mixture cool, then add it to the first mixture.

  3. Stir in the walnuts, citron, and vanilla.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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.

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. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and a dense, moist texture.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the cake denser and less risen.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, chocolate, meat. 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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