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 sugar together.
Stir in the beaten yolks of the eggs.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in alternately with the flour.
Finally, add the juice and grated rind of the lemon.
Bake
Bake immediately at 350°F (175°C).
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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Flour + milktop 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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Lemon + milktop 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the lemon and milk to produce gas that leavens the cake.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake once it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the baking soda.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten until stiff hold air that gives lift; overmixing with the flour deflates them and makes the cake dense. Fold gently and alternate with the flour.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk. 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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