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 ↓
Crakry 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 sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and eggs, mixing well.
Mix and bake
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, mace or nutmeg, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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 + 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 light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when creamed with butter, aiding a light texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that works with baking soda to help the cake rise and keep a tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the batter.
The step that matters
Stirring the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Stir only until just combined. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, cream. 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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