Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Seed 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the lemon flavoring, flour, baking powder, and caraway seeds until combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a buttered and lined baking tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 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.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + carawaytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together270 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps cream with butter to create an aerated batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as the eggs and heat firm it up.
- Eggs
- Add structure, moisture and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually and mixing well after each keeps the emulsion stable. If eggs go in too quickly the batter can curdle, which may make the cake dense or greasy.
Swap the caraway
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Carawaythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, lemon. 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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