Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
A Good Cup Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, and baking soda.
Add the beaten eggs and mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until golden.
Make the icing and finish
Let the cake cool completely before icing.
For the icing, boil 1 cup of sugar until it reaches a thick syrup.
Stir the syrup into the beaten egg whites until stiff.
Flavor the icing with lemon and spread it over the cooled cake.
Cut the cake into squares to serve.
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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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that works with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cake.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with hot syrup to form a stable, airy, marshmallow-like icing.
The step that matters
Stirring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and added slowly while whisking so it cooks the egg whites and forms a stable foam. If it is added too fast or cooled too much, the whites may stay loose or deflate.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, 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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