Name: Honey Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup honey; 1 pint flour; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup sour milk; ½ cup melted butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon mace

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Honey 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the honey, flour, sugar, sour milk, melted butter, baking soda, eggs, and mace in the order listed.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,327 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Honey: Adds sweetness, moisture, and browning, and keeps the cake soft.
Melted butter: Adds fat for moisture and a tender crumb.

Swap the mace

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, flour, sugar, milk, butter, 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.