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 ↓
Graham Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the cream of tartar and mix thoroughly.
Gradually add the Graham flour until the batter is not stiff.
Add flavoring and currants if desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until golden.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb as they set.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay tender.
- Graham flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake; its bran and germ add texture and a nutty flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated texture.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the milk and mixing it evenly through the batter, then adding the cream of tartar, lets the reaction spread through the batter so the cake rises evenly rather than in pockets.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cream, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, milk, flour. 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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