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 ↓
Nut 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the beaten eggs and milk, mixing well.
In another bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Once cooled, frost the cake and sprinkle half of the walnuts on top.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure, richness and lift as they set.
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds fat for a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming with the butter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Walnuts
- Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Stirring only until smooth keeps the cake tender, while overmixing makes it tough and dense.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, cream. 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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