Name: Bradford Cup Cake
Ingredients: 8 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups butter or lard; 6 eggs; 2 cups sugar; 2 cups molasses; 1 cup sour milk; spices to taste; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') if using lard

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 ↓

Bradford 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.

Prepare the batter

Sift the baking soda into the flour.
Work the butter or lard into the flour until well combined.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, molasses, and sour milk.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake

Grease a tin pan and pour the batter in.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

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).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 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).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to make the cake rise.
Butter or lard: Adds fat, which tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that the eggs and fat support.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk and molasses, so the batter should be mixed and baked promptly. Mixing until just uniform keeps the crumb tender while still distributing the leavening evenly.

“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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Bradford Cup Cake