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 Mountain 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and mix well.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then gradually add to the wet mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-35 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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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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Flour + buttertop 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).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Whites of 6 eggs
- Whipped into peaks to trap air, giving the cake lift and a light texture.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter for sweetness and to help create a light, fluffy texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic component that stabilizes whipped egg whites and reacts with baking soda.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently until just combined. Overmixing knocks air out of the whipped egg whites, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Stop folding once no streaks of white remain.
“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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