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 ↓
Citron 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).
Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar and butter until creamy.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.
Finish and bake
Fold in the chopped citron and then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter into a pan that is twice as long as it is wide, ensuring the batter is about 2 inches thick.
Bake 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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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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by beating give lift and an airy, light crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the butter and yolks cream into a smooth base.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Chopped citron
- Adds candied fruit flavor and moist pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the batter, leading to a denser, flatter 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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