Name: Cable Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 3½ cups flour; 3 eggs (save whites of 2 for frosting); 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; ½ teaspoon baking soda or 2 teaspoons baking powder; Fruit for layering (sugar any kind of fruit two hours before serving)

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 ↓

Cable Pudding

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup sweet milk
3½ cups flour
3 eggs (save whites of 2 for frosting)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon baking soda or 2 teaspoons baking powder
Fruit for layering (sugar any kind of fruit two hours before serving)

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda or baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Incorporate the eggs, reserving the whites of 2 for frosting.

Bake and assemble

Divide the batter into two layers and bake until golden.
Cut and layer the prepared fruit between the baked layers.
Frost with the reserved egg whites if desired.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter.
Baking soda or baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the layers rise.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.

“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.