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 ↓
Raised Loaf Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In the afternoon, mix the butter and sugar together.
Rub half of the flour into the butter and sugar mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine the sweet milk and yeast, then wet the flour mixture with it.
Let the mixture rise overnight until very light.
In the morning, add the nutmegs, brandy, and wine to the mixture.
Bake
Bake in an oven preheated to 400°F (200°C) until done.
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.
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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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Flour and butter 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 that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb soft and moist.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness as their proteins set during baking.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during the long rise, making the cake light and airy.
- Sweet milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and activates the yeast.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture rise overnight until very light. Yeast gas builds the airy, open crumb. If the dough is stopped before it is fully risen, the cake bakes up dense and heavy.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, milk. 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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