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 ↓
Yorkshire Tea-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Cream the egg white with the butter and sugar.
Beat in the ground rice and self-raising flour until a light dough forms.
Mix in the milk.
Bake
Butter two plates and spread the mixture evenly on each.
Place each plate into a 'Papakuk' bag and cook for 15 minutes.
Assemble and serve
Spread warmed jam on one cake, place the other on top, and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 white
- Adds structure and helps bind the dough as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a rich, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps create a smooth, creamed base.
- Ground rice
- Gives the cakes a fine, slightly crumbly texture.
- Self-raising flour
- Provides structure and lift from its built-in raising agent.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the dough comes together.
The step that matters
Spread the mixture evenly on each plate. An even layer cooks at a consistent rate, so no part is left raw while another dries out.
“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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