Name: Orange Cake
Ingredients: 2 ounces of butter (¼ cup); 6 ounces of sugar (¾ cup); 2 teacups of flour (about 240 grams); ½ teacup of sweet milk (½ cup); 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar; ½ teaspoon of baking soda; 3 eggs; 1 orange

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 ↓

Orange Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, butter, and 3 ounces of sugar, rubbing them together lightly.
Make a well in the center and add the yolks of the eggs.
Mix the cream of tartar and baking soda into the milk until smooth, then pour it over the yolks and stir well.
Whip the whites of 2 eggs to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the batter.
Grease four jelly cake tins with butter and evenly distribute the batter among them.
Bake in the preheated oven for 7 minutes.
For the cream, bring the milk and salt to a boil in a saucepan.
Beat the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of flour and 2 tablespoons of sugar, then stir into the boiling milk.
Remove from heat after 1 minute of boiling, add almond essence, and let cool.
Layer the baked cakes with the cream and sprinkle powdered sugar on top before serving.

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).
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).
Flour + milktop 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

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Coconutfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.