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 ↓
Blackberry 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 mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the blackberry jam or seeded blackberries.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the sour milk. Mix until just combined.
Bake
Divide the batter into three layers and bake for 25-30 minutes 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.
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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Blackberry + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together315 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + blackberrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together522 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and binding to hold the cake together as it sets.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Blackberry jam or seeded blackberries
- Adds moisture, fruity sweetness and color to the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise and stay tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that leavens the cake.
The step that matters
Mix until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing toughens the batter and can make the cake dense, so stop as soon as the flour disappears.
Swap the blackberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Blackberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk. 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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