Name: Banana Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 cup granulated sugar; 3 large eggs; 2 teaspoons butter; ¾ cup milk; 3 ripe bananas, mashed; 1 cup powdered sugar

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 ↓

Banana 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour and granulated sugar.
Add the eggs, butter, and milk; stir until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Add the filling and bake

In another bowl, combine the mashed bananas and powdered sugar.
Spread the banana filling over the batter.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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).
Milk + bananatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,470 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its starch sets during baking.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the crumb as they cook.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps the cake brown lightly in the oven.
Mashed bananas: Add moisture, sweetness, and banana flavor to the cake.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter.