Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Batter Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Beat the eggs well in a bowl.
Add the milk and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Leave out the tartaric acid until you are ready to bake.
Bake
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Once ready, add the tartaric acid and mix well before pouring into a greased baking dish.
Bake 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.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Beaten eggs add structure and help the batter bind and set as it bakes.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid to release gas, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
- Tartaric acid
- Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas, so it is added just before baking.
The step that matters
Add the tartaric acid just before baking. Baking soda and tartaric acid start releasing gas as soon as they meet liquid. If the acid is mixed in early, the bubbles escape before the batter sets in the oven, so the cakes rise less and turn out flat and dense.
“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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