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 ↓
Cup 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks and beat for a few minutes.
Gradually mix in 1 cup of flour and ⅓ cup of milk, alternating until all flour and milk are incorporated.
Stir in the lemon extract.
Whip, fold and bake
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with 2 teaspoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
Add the baking powder and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 1 hour.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites trap air that lifts the cake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the batter bakes.
- Butter
- Adds tenderness and richness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, causing the batter to rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the crumb soft.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Fold gently so the whipped whites keep their trapped air. Stirring hard knocks that air out, and the cake rises less and bakes up denser.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe 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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