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 ↓
Citron 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 the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately, then combine them.
Sift the flour with the cream of tartar.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
Combine the flour mixture with the milk, then fold in the egg mixture.
Dredge the citron pieces in flour and add them to the batter.
Flavor the batter with lemon or rose as desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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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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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Butter + flourtop 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).
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.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, and their separately beaten whites add lift to the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps the batter blend into a smooth, pourable consistency.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to help the cake rise.
- Citron
- Adds chewy pieces of candied fruit flavor and texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg mixture. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites and yolks, so the batter stays light and the cake rises well instead of turning dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk, cream. 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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