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 ↓
Apple 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the baking soda and salt with the flour, creating a well in the center.
Moisten the cornmeal with boiling water.
Make the batter
In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Beat the egg yolks until frothy, then beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Combine the beaten yolks and whites with the butter and sugar mixture.
Add the moistened cornmeal and stir to combine.
Pour in the soured milk and mix until you have a batter.
Fold in the chopped apples evenly throughout the batter.
Bake
Grease your baking pans and fill them two-thirds full with the batter.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites add lift and a lighter, airier crumb, while yolks add richness.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure as gluten and starch set during baking.
- Soured milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise and tenderizes the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and creaming it with sugar traps air for texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning, and creamed with butter it aids a light texture.
- Sour apples
- Add moisture, tartness and fruity flavor throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks; overmixing or deflating them while folding makes the cake dense instead of light.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk. 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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