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 ↓
White Mountain Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream the sugar and butter together.
Add the milk, beating in a spoonful at a time.
Sift the flour and baking powder together at least six times.
Beat the sifted flour and baking powder into the batter one spoonful at a time.
Add the lemon extract last.
Add the egg whites and bake
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter about two spoonfuls at a time until smooth and creamy.
Pour the batter into a square or round pan.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) 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.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter to aerate the batter and add sweetness and tenderness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the cake's rise, so they must be folded gently in small amounts. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam and produces a dense, heavy cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, 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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