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 ↓
Coffee-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, brown sugar, butter, milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Mix until a stiff dough forms.
Roll the dough out to about ½ inch thick.
Shape and bake
Sprinkle ground cinnamon evenly over the dough.
Roll the dough up like a jelly roll.
Cut the rolled dough into ½ inch thick slices.
Coat the slices in granulated sugar.
Place the sugared slices on a baking sheet.
Bake thoroughly until golden.
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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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the dough.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the dough comes together and bakes softly.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas that helps it rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that works with baking soda to leaven the dough and balance sweetness.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and molasses flavor, and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Bake thoroughly until golden. Baking long enough sets the eggs and starch and lets the baking soda and cream of tartar finish leavening. Underbaked centers stay gummy and doughy, while the sugar coating can burn if the oven runs too hot.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, cream):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, cream. 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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