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 ↓
English Walnut 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 separate bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Bake and frost
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool and frost with chocolate frosting.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set in the oven and help bind the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed with butter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so the dry ingredients blend in evenly.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.. Adding flour in portions with the milk keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing, which would develop gluten and make the cake tough.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, cream, chocolate):
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, cream, chocolate. 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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