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 ↓
Walnut Cake
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.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the milk, mixing well.
Sift the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together twice, then add to the mixture.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake's crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy batter when creamed with butter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay tender.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Overmixing knocks out the air beaten into the egg whites, so the cake bakes up denser and flatter. Fold gently, stopping as soon as the batter is just combined.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, cream, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, cream, 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.
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