Name: Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups sugar; ½ cup butter; 3 eggs, separated; ½ cup milk; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate

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

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.

Make the batter

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the well-beaten egg yolks and the milk.
Sift the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together twice, then mix thoroughly with the batter.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and stir it into the batter.

Bake and finish

Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 35 minutes.
Let the cake cool, then split it in two with a sharp knife.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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: Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Eggs: Yolks add richness and structure; whites are not used in this method.
All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to help the cake rise and stay tender.
Unsweetened chocolate: Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the 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.