Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Walnut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar.
Mix in the walnut meat, egg yolks, and milk.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; then add to the mixture and beat vigorously.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes.
Cover with white cream frosting.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,035 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and moisture, and help bind the batter.
- Egg whites
- Trap air when beaten, helping the cake rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise.
- Walnut meat
- Adds texture and a nutty flavor throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beat the flour mixture in vigorously. Vigorous beating develops gluten in the flour, giving structure; the flour should be added after the wet mixture is smooth so it blends evenly without overworking into toughness.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, meat):
- Almondfits better
- Walnutthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, meat. 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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