Name: Plain Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; 4 ounces clarified dripping (or butter); 1 teaspoon baking powder; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ pound currants; ½ pint milk; ¼ pound brown sugar; ½ teaspoon ground allspice

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 ↓

Plain Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Rub the clarified dripping into the flour until no lumps remain.
Clean the currants by rubbing them in a cloth, then add them to the flour mixture.
Stir in the brown sugar and ground allspice.
Pour in the milk and mix everything together until well combined.

Bake and cool

Grease a ½ quart tin with a little dripping.
Pour the batter into the greased tin.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.
Remove the tin from the oven and let the cake cool on its side.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,359 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,302 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure once mixed with liquid and baked.
Clarified dripping: Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating the flour particles.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk: Hydrates the flour to form the batter and adds moisture.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses note, and helps browning.
Currants: Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, allspice):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, allspice. 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.