Name: Toronto Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 3 eggs; 1½ cups flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; raspberry jam to taste; ¼ teaspoon salt; milk as needed

Why it works: Raspberry and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,014 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Toronto Pie

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, beat the sugar and eggs until well combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until smooth.
If the batter is too thick, add milk as needed.

Bake and assemble

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden brown.
Once cooled, layer the cake with raspberry jam between the layers.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Raspberry + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,014 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cake crumb.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown while baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Raspberry jam: Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the cake layers.