Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lawn-tennis Cake
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
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Clean the currants and sultanas, and cut up the peel.
Make the batter
Stir the sieved flour and baking powder into the mixture.
Add the fruit and mix everything together thoroughly.
Turn the mixture into a square cake tin.
Bake and cool
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.
When done, place the cake on a sieve to cool.
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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Butter + flourtop 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).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and binding as they set, and moisture and richness to the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Creams with the butter to aid aeration and adds sweetness and tenderness.
- Currants
- Add fruit flavour, sweetness and moist pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beat in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them too fast can cause the mixture to curdle, which weakens the air structure needed for an even rise.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, 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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