Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Nut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.
Mix in the sugar, cracker flour, baking powder, and ground nuts.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.
Fill and finish
Let the cake cool completely.
Slice the cake in half and fill with whipped cream mixed with ground nuts and sugar to taste.
Cover the top with more whipped cream.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 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).
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Nuts + creamtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together886 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whipped whites lighten the batter and give the cake its airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the batter hold its beaten texture.
- Cracker flour
- Provides the starch that gives the cake body and holds its crumb together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Ground nuts
- Add fat, flavor and moistness to the crumb.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites; stirring vigorously deflates the batter and produces a dense, flat cake.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, 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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