Name: Apple Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 2 eggs; ½ cup lard; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup sugar; 2½ cups milk; 7 or 8 apples; 1 cup sugar (for topping); cinnamon (to taste)

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Melt the butter and lard together.
In a bowl, mix the melted butter and lard with the eggs, baking powder, sugar, and enough flour to make a soft batter.
Stir in the milk until well combined.
Pare and slice the apples, then arrange them closely on top of the batter in the pan.
Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar and some cinnamon over the apples.
Bake slowly until the apples are tender and the cake is cooked through.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Figfits about as well
Raisinfits about as well
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.