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 ↓
Cup-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 the batter
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar to the mixture.
Gradually stir in flour until the batter is stiff, using good judgment on the amount.
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 + 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
- Provide structure and richness, and the beaten whites add lift to the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a light texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air in the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps hydrate the flour so the batter forms.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
The step that matters
Gradually stir in flour until the batter is stiff. Adding flour gradually and stopping at the right consistency matters because overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough. Too much flour makes it dry and dense.
“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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