Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Pound 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
Grease the pans well with butter.
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter in a large bowl.
Gradually add the strained lemon juice while beating.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and whites separately until frothy.
Add the beaten eggs to the creamed mixture.
Take a handful of the sifted flour and stir it in, then add the remaining flour.
Mix in the grated nutmeg or pounded mace.
Bake
Bake in a tube pan or small tin pans at 350°F (175°C) for 3–4 hours, depending on the size of the pan.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift while yolks add richness, structure and tenderness to the crumb.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake its rich, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creams with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as the batter bakes.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs separately and folding them in. Whipping yolks and whites separately and adding them gently keeps air in the batter, which gives the pound cake its lift and light crumb.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, nutmeg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, nutmeg. 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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