Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Plain 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Mix in the beaten yolks of the eggs, nutmeg, wine, and rose-water.
Stir in the sifted flour and the well-beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake until light brown.
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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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, creamy base when beaten with butter.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness; whites lighten the batter when beaten and folded in.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Wine
- Adds moisture and acidity that contribute to flavor and tenderness.
The step that matters
Stir in the sifted flour and the well-beaten egg whites. Overmixing after the flour goes in develops gluten and deflates the whipped egg whites, making the cake dense and tough. Fold gently until just combined so the air trapped in the whites and butter-sugar mixture stays in the batter and lifts the cake as it bakes.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine, rose, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine, rose, flour. 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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