Name: Buttermilk Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pint buttermilk; flour (enough to form a dough); 1 tablespoon dissolved carbonate of ammonia

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pint buttermilk
flour (enough to form a dough)
1 tablespoon dissolved carbonate of ammonia

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.

Prepare

Stir flour into buttermilk until a dough forms.
Roll out the dough into sheets.
Cut the cakes from the sheets.

Bake

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk: Provides acidity and moisture that help form the dough and give a tender crumb.
Flour: Forms the structure of the dough that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Carbonate of ammonia: Acts as a leavening agent, releasing gas that lifts the cakes as they bake.

“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.