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 ↓
Lemon 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.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg yolks until thick and light, then add them to the butter mixture.
Alternately add the milk and sifted flour mixed with baking soda, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Add the grated lemon rind and lemon juice, mixing well.
Bake and ice
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, cover with icing flavored with lemon juice.
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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks add richness and the whites, folded in, provide lift and structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the batter and helps hydrate the flour for a softer cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that makes the cake light. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently until just combined to keep the cake from turning dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour. 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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