Name: Old-fashioned Pound Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound butter; 1 pound sugar; 1 pound flour; 8 eggs; ½ cup brandy or whisky; ½ nutmeg, grated; 2 teaspoons baking powder

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Pound Cake

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 the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the butter, sugar, and egg yolks until very light.
Add the flour, brandy, grated nutmeg, and egg whites, then mix until well combined.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 1 hour.

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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: Adds richness and a tender crumb, and holds air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and, when beaten with butter, helps trap air for a light texture.
Flour: Provides the structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.
Eggs: Add structure, richness, and moisture, and help bind the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Beating the butter, sugar, and egg yolks until very light. Beating softened butter with sugar traps air in the fat, which expands in the oven and gives the cake lift and a fine texture. Stopping too early leaves a dense cake.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy):

Cinnamonfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Capersfits less well
Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy. 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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Old-fashioned Pound Cake