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 ↓
White 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Sift the flour and baking powder together three or four times.
Make the batter
Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and lemon zest.
Bake
Line the bottom of a cake pan with parchment paper and pour in the batter.
Bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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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Milk + buttertop 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
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they add lift and structure to the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, tender batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring too vigorously deflates the whipped foam that gives the cake its lift. Fold gently so the batter keeps the air trapped in the egg whites.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg. 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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