Why it works: Flour and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Tea Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sweet milk, sugar, egg, and walnut meats.
Stir the mixture until well combined.
Let the batter stand for 20 minutes.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake until golden brown.
For best flavor, let the cake sit for a few days before slicing.
Serve slices with butter.
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.
-
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,035 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its starch sets during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar, giving the batter its moisture and texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Walnut meats
- Adds texture and a nutty flavor, with fat that contributes to moistness.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake until golden brown. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so the batter should go into the oven promptly after mixing and standing. Judging doneness by color alone can mislead, since the interior may still be wet, so the loaf should be checked for set structure as well.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, egg, meat):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, egg, 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.
More tea cake recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.