Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Drop Cakes
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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and sour milk, mixing well.
Stir in the currants.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Creams with sugar to give the cakes richness and a tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cakes as the batter bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter for sweetness and tenderness, and helps browning.
The step that matters
Combine the dry ingredients gradually and stir only until just combined. Overmixing once the flour is added develops gluten, which makes the drop cakes tough. Stirring just until combined keeps them tender while the baking soda's rise is still active.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, flour, egg. 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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