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 ↓
Lemon 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.
Make the batter
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
Add the beaten eggs, grated lemon, and lemon juice; mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.
Dissolve the cream of tartar in a little water and add it to the bowl.
Gradually mix in the flour until well combined.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into greased tins, about 1 inch thick.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
Let cool and then ice the cakes.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the lemon and cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that reacts with the baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay tender.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda and cream of tartar before adding. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in liquid and mixing it evenly into the batter spreads the leavening so the cake rises uniformly instead of in pockets or with a bitter patch.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, cream, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, cream, flour. 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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