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 ↓
White Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to the creamed mixture.
Fold in the egg whites gently.
Pour the batter into a prepared pan.
Bake
Bake in a cool oven, gradually increasing the heat until done.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and its creamed fat traps air that helps the cake rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens and browns the crust, and creaming with butter helps aerate the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift through the air they hold, which sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites gently. Folding keeps the air trapped in the egg whites and creamed batter. Vigorous stirring deflates that air, which leads to a denser, heavier cake.
“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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