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 ↓
Drop Cakes
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.
Prepare
Sift flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar together through a fine sieve.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Grease flat tins.
Clean currants.
Make the batter
Add a little milk and mix.
Add yolks of eggs and beat well.
Then add milk, beaten egg whites, and flour alternately.
Drop batter onto them in separate spoonfuls.
Sprinkle a few currants over the top of each cake.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until rich brown.
Cakes will run together.
Break apart when taken from the oven.
Cool on a sieve.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 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).
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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter and beaten whites lighten it and help the cakes rise.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that gives the cakes a tender crumb and richness.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cakes and helps browning as they bake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as the batter sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with cream of tartar or baking powder to release gas that makes the cakes rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic partner to baking soda, producing gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.
The step that matters
Drop batter onto the tins in separate spoonfuls. The batter spreads and runs together as it bakes, so spacing the spoonfuls keeps each cake distinct. Leaving room between them lets the heat reach the batter evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, butter, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, butter, milk, cream. 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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