Name: Sponge Parkin
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; 1 lb treacle; 3 teaspoons ground ginger; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 6 oz sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 5 oz lard or dripping; ½ cup warm milk

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sponge Parkin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Rub the lard or dripping into the flour until well combined.
Add the sugar, ground ginger, and baking powder to the mixture.
Warm the treacle, then mix it with the warm milk and baking soda.
Stir all the ingredients together until well combined.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1½ hours.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Treacle: Adds dark sweetness, rich flavour, and moisture to the cake.
Lard or dripping: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps it moist.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic treacle to help the cake rise and darken.