Why it works: Strawberry jam and cinnamon work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 32 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten egg yolks and continue beating.
Mix in the strawberry jam.
Add a little of the flour to bind the mixture.
Stir in the sour milk and the remaining flour, beating well.
Add the cinnamon and grated nutmeg.
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a square shallow pan.
Bake for about 35 minutes.
For serving, cover with boiled icing and mark in squares before it cools, placing a ripe strawberry in each square.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Strawberry jam + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together32 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together30,777 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,647 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Egg yolks enrich the batter and whites, folded in stiff, give the cake lift and a light crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air during beating.
- Cake flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise and brown.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently until just combined, then bake promptly.
“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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