Why it works: Flour and butternut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 37 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Butternut 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. 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).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the chopped butternuts and mix well.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the sweet milk.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for about 30-40 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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Flour + butternuttop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + milktop 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).
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, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter for a fluffy structure and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's main structure once mixed and set by heat.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes airy.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter flows and bakes evenly.
- Butternuts
- Add chopped pieces of fruit-like squash that contribute moisture and flavor throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Adding flour and milk in alternating portions keeps the batter smooth and emulsified. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.
Swap the butternut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Butternutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk. 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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