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 ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix sugar and melted butter.
Add eggs and milk, and stir until combined.
Mix in baking powder and enough flour to form a soft dough.
Roll the dough to ½ inch thick.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan and fry the cakes 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 + 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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the cakes rise and turn light.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cakes a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and aids gentle browning in the pan.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour into a workable dough.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown. Frying in hot lard browns the surface through the Maillard reaction and sets the outside before the centre cooks. Too cool a pan lets the cakes soak up fat and turn greasy, while too hot a pan can scorch the outside before the middle is cooked through.
“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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