Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, sift the flour.
In another large bowl, sift the powdered sugar and cut in the butter until well combined.
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, brandy, rose water, and essence of lemon.
Combine the egg mixture with the butter and sugar mixture.
Mix the sifted flour into the wet ingredients gradually.
In a small bowl, combine the mace, cinnamon, and powdered nutmeg.
Add the spice mixture to the batter and mix well.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour 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.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,174 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rose + macetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together498 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together560 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it sets.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and contributes to its fine, tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps create a fine texture when creamed with sugar.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking, giving the cake its structure and richness.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol evaporates during baking.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Mixing flour into the wet ingredients slowly and gently keeps gluten development limited, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy, rose, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy, rose, lemon. 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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