Name: Anise Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound sugar; 1 tablespoon anise seed; 1 pound flour; 1 measure baking powder

Why it works: Anise and flour work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 270 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Anise Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 pound sugar
1 tablespoon anise seed
1 pound flour
1 measure baking powder

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the sugar, anise seed, flour, and baking powder.
Drop the mixture onto baking sheets using a teaspoon.

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.

Anise + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + anisetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas as it heats, helping the cookies rise and lighten.