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 ↓
Ginger 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
In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, and eggs until well combined.
Add the molasses, milk, baking soda, spices, and raisins.
Gradually add enough potato flour to achieve the consistency of layer cake batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a shallow pan and bake until golden 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Potato + gingertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together992 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb through fat.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and bind the batter as they set in the oven.
- Potato flour
- Supplies the starch that sets the batter into a cake structure.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep flavor, and helps browning.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the potato flour. Adding flour in stages lets you judge the batter's consistency. The right layer-cake thickness gives a cake that rises and holds its shape rather than turning dense or runny.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, potato, flour, egg, molasses, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, potato, flour, egg, molasses, milk. 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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