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 ↓
White Mountain 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.
Combine the cream of tartar with the flour.
Gradually add the flour and egg whites alternately to the mixture until fully combined.
Divide the batter evenly into four straight-edged pans.
Bake and assemble
Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool, then layer with frosting between each cake.
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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Flour + milktop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Gluten and starch build the cake's main structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a fine, tender texture when creamed with butter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to lift the cake and stabilise the whites.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour and egg whites alternately. Folding flour and whites in gently and alternately keeps the air from the whites intact; overmixing knocks out air and develops gluten, leaving a dense, tough cake.
“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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