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 ↓
Currant 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat half of the sugar with the butter until creamy.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar.
Combine the butter mixture with the yolk mixture, then stir in the flour and lemon extract.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.
Dredge the currants with a little flour and fold them into the batter last.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 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 + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and moisture, while whipped whites lighten the batter.
- White granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Currants
- Add tart, chewy fruit pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the cake bakes up dense. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, lemon, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, lemon, egg. 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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