Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Soda Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
In another bowl, combine the sweet milk, cream of tartar, sugar, and egg.
Melt the butter and add it to the wet ingredients.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until smooth.
Fry
Heat oil in a pan and drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 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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Flour + buttertop 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the batter once it is set by frying.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds richness and structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the cakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that reacts with baking soda, adding lift and a slight tang.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into hot oil. Oil that is hot enough seals the outside of each spoonful quickly, so less oil soaks in and the cakes stay less greasy. Oil that is too cool lets the batter absorb fat and cook unevenly.
“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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