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 ↓
Orange 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sweet milk, orange juice, and pulp.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.
Pour the batter into jelly tins.
Bake and finish
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Whip the reserved egg whites to make frosting and spread it on the cooled cake.
Sprinkle grated orange peel on top for garnish.
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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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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as its proteins set during baking.
- Eggs
- Add structure and binding, helping the batter hold together and set.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter to trap air, and adds sweetness and tender browning.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, lifting the batter so the cake rises.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies liquid that hydrates the flour and keeps the cake moist.
The step that matters
Adding the flour mixture gradually. Once flour meets the wet ingredients, gluten starts to form. Adding it gradually and mixing only until combined keeps the crumb tender rather than tough.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, 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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