Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Strawberry Jam 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and half of the sugar until light and fluffy.
Add food coloring to achieve a pink hue.
Make the batter
Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until light.
Combine the yolk mixture with the creamed butter and sugar.
Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.
Add the dissolved mixture to the batter along with a little flour.
Fold in the egg whites, remaining flour, and cinnamon.
Gently fold in the jam.
Pour the batter into layers or a single sheet.
Bake and finish
Bake until golden.
Once cooled, cover with white or green icing.
Cut into squares.
Top each square with a fresh strawberry if in season.
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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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, with whites whipped to trap air for lift.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while tenderising the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas that raises the batter.
- Jam
- Adds moisture, fruit sweetness and the strawberry flavour.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the egg whites, flour, and cinnamon. Folding keeps the air bubbles from the egg whites in the batter. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out and develops gluten, which makes the cake dense and tough.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, butter, buttermilk, sugar):
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, butter, buttermilk, sugar. 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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