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 ↓
Walnut or 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the butter mixture.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together, then gradually add to the mixture.
Fold in the chopped walnut meats.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 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 to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the cake and gives it a light crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps give the cake its light, fluffy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and helps keep the cake light.
- Walnut meats
- Add texture and a nutty flavor to the crumb.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the butter mixture. Under-whipped whites will not hold air and the cake will be dense. Over-mixing when folding deflates the foam and loses the lift the whites provide.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, meat, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Walnutthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, meat, 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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