Name: Orange Shortcake
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 cup milk; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder; 8 oranges

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Orange Shortcake

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the egg, milk, melted butter, and baking powder.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is as stiff as pound cake.
Pour the batter into round cake tins and bake until done.
Once baked, split the cakes open.
Cut the oranges into small pieces and layer them inside the split cakes.

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.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,696 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + orangetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).