Name: Nut Cake
Ingredients: 5 egg whites; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 cup sweet milk; 3 cups flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup hickory nuts, chopped; 1 cup black walnuts, chopped

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 the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk to the butter mixture and mix well.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Stir in the chopped hickory and black walnuts.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nuts + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together284 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,180 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

Egg whites: Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the cake's crumb.
Butter: Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture.
Sugar: Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps it brown.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Hickory nuts: Add chopped nut pieces, contributing flavor and crunch throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only while whipped; vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a denser, flatter cake.

Swap the nuts

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

Almondfits better
Pistachiofits better
Macadamia nutfits better
Nutsthe original

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