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 ↓
Harrison 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 the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the baking powder with the sour milk.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks to the butter mixture and beat well.
Stir in the molasses and sour milk mixture.
Gradually add the flour, mixing continuously.
Fold in the dried fruit.
Finish and bake
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick 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.
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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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Eggs
- Egg yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites add lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Creaming butter with sugar traps air and gives the cake tenderness and richness.
- All-purpose flour
- Flour provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Molasses adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark color to the cake.
- Baking powder
- Baking powder releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air that makes the cake light. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and yields a dense cake.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, molasses, milk, butter, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, molasses, milk, butter, 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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