Name: Toronto Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 3 eggs; 1½ cups flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; raspberry jam to taste

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Toronto Pie

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until well combined.
Add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

Bake and fill

Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes.
Once cooled, spread raspberry jam between the layers.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + raspberrytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,262 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,101 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Raspberry jam: Adds sweetness, fruity flavour and moisture between the cake layers.