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 ↓
Pound 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
Stir in the ground cloves and lemon zest.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake
Bake for 50-60 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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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
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give a rich, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with butter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness and moisture, and help bind the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to help it rise and lighten the crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter for an even texture.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Beating each egg in fully before the next keeps the butter-sugar mixture emulsified. If the eggs are added too quickly, the batter can curdle and lose the air trapped during creaming, leading to a denser cake.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk, lemon. 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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