Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Mock Angel Food
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
Heat the milk in a double boiler until it reaches boiling point.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt four times.
Make the batter
Pour the boiling milk into the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
Gently fold in the egg whites until well mixed, being careful not to beat them.
Add the vanilla extract and mix gently.
Bake
Do not grease the pan.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Egg whites
- Trapped air in the whipped whites gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep its crumb tender and moist.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form the batter's soft texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Beating the egg whites deflates the air they hold, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold gently to keep the foam intact.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, egg):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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