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 ↓
Chocolate 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into two flat tins (5x10 inches) or a large dripping pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Make and spread the frosting
For the frosting, dissolve the grated chocolate in a dish over a kettle of hot water.
In a separate pot, boil the beaten egg yolks, milk, and sugar for 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the melted chocolate.
Spread the frosting between the layers and over the top of the cake.
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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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a tender, fine-textured crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to lighten the batter and help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that activates the baking soda and stabilizes the whipped egg whites.
- Grated chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavor and, once melted, a rich, glossy frosting.
The step that matters
Folding the whipped egg whites into the batter. Egg whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently preserves that air; stirring vigorously deflates it, leaving a denser cake.
“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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