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 ↓
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
Soften the butter in a warm place without allowing it to oil.
In an earthen dish, cream the softened butter and sugar together.
Add the yolks of the eggs, then the milk, and mix well.
Mix and bake
Fold in the beaten egg whites and flour until combined.
Add spices, liquors, and fruit if desired.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for larger cakes or 400°F (200°C) for smaller cakes.
To check if a large cake is done, pierce it with a broom straw; it should come out clean.
Remove the cake from the tin after 15 minutes and let it cool without turning it over.
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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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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Egg + flourtop 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
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Creams with the butter and adds sweetness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and moisture, while beaten whites add lift and structure.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once folded in and baked.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps the batter come together smoothly.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites and flour. Folding gently keeps the air in the beaten whites. Stirring hard knocks the air out, so the cake rises less and bakes up dense.
“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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