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 ↓
Cocoanut Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Cream the butter in a large bowl.
Gradually add the sugar, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing thoroughly.
Stir in the grated lemon peel, coconut, beaten eggs, and milk until well combined.
Butter the cake tins and line the tins with buttered paper.
Bake and ice
Pour the batter into the tins to a depth of 1¼ inches.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Remove the cakes from the oven.
Spread icing over the cakes.
Return the cakes to the oven to dry the 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.
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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Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + coconuttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,233 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps lighten the texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure, richness and moisture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating butter and sugar together until light traps air bubbles that expand in the oven. Under-creaming leaves a dense, heavy cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, coconut, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, coconut, egg, milk. 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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