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Dessert

Graham Cake

A cake made with graham cracker crumbs, flour, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, and walnuts, topped with butter‑sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Graham Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Graham Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar, egg yolks, milk, and vanilla extract until well combined.

  3. Add the graham cracker crumbs, salt, flour, and baking powder, and mix well.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites and chopped walnuts.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until done.

  2. For the frosting, mix 2 tablespoons of butter, 1½ cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and enough milk to moisten.

  3. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 whites are beaten and folded in to lighten the batter and give it structure as it sets.
All-purpose flour
Flour provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Graham cracker crumbs
Contribute a toasty, malty flavor and some body to the batter.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, milk, vanilla, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk, vanilla, flour. 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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