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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour and cream of tartar.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Make the batter
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the butter mixture.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the lemon extract.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 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).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the butter cream to trap air for lightness.
- Eggs
- Add structure, moisture and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and moisture to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to help the cake rise and stay tender.
The step that matters
Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating the fat and sugar together traps air bubbles that expand in the oven and give the cake its lift. Under-creaming leaves a dense texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, cream, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, cream, milk, 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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