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 ↓
White Loaf 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the pulverized sugar and softened butter.
Add the flour, corn starch, sweet milk, and baking powder; mix well.
Flavor the mixture with lemon or vanilla extract.
Fold and bake
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Whites of eggs
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the cake its light, airy lift.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Corn starch
- Softens the crumb by diluting the gluten in the flour, for a finer texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and stay light.
- Pulverized sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, tender crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Gentle folding keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a denser, flatter loaf.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, corn, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, corn, milk, egg. 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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