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 ↓
Chess 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.
Make the filling
Combine the egg yolks, sugar, butter, and flavoring in a double boiler.
Cook the mixture until thick like cream.
Make the cake layers
Mix the eggs, sugar, butter, milk, baking soda, and enough flour to form a stiff dough. Add lemon flavoring to the dough.
Roll out the dough.
Line pie tins with the rolled dough.
Bake the lined tins in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.
Allow the cakes to cool.
Assemble
Stack the cooled cakes together with boiled icing.
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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Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together610 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tea + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard filling and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the filling and the dough.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps it set to a thick, creamy consistency.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift the dough so the cake layers rise and turn tender.
The step that matters
Cook the mixture until thick like cream. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently; if the double boiler runs too hot, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy. Gentle, steady heat keeps the filling smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, tea, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, tea, milk, flour. 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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