Name: Fudge Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs, beaten; ½ cup butter; 2 squares chocolate; 1 cup flour; 1 teaspoon vanilla; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ pound pecans or black walnuts

Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fudge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a biscuit pan.

Make the batter

Melt the chocolate and mix it with the butter and sugar.
Add the beaten eggs, flour, vanilla, and salt, and mix until smooth.
Fold in the pecans or walnuts.

Bake and serve

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Cut into squares to serve.

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.

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.

Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,691 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Chocolate + pecanstop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together804 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,416 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay moist.
Chocolate: Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and fudgy richness.

Swap the pecans

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

Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Macadamia nutfits better
Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, chocolate, flour, vanilla. 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.