Name: Shrewsbury Cakes
Ingredients: ½ pound fresh butter, washed in rose water; ½ pound dried and sifted flour; 7 ounces pounded and sifted loaf sugar; ½ ounce caraway seeds; 2 large eggs

Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shrewsbury Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

½ pound fresh butter, washed in rose water
½ pound dried and sifted flour
7 ounces pounded and sifted loaf sugar
½ ounce caraway seeds
2 large eggs

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Beat the butter to a cream with the rose water.
Add the flour, sugar, caraway seeds, and eggs; mix well to form a paste.

Shape and bake

Roll the paste thin and cut it into round cakes.
Prick the cakes and place them on floured baking tins.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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.

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.

Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,435 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rose + carawaytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Butter: Creamed with the rose water to give the cakes a rich, tender crumb.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the paste together and sets as the cakes bake.
Eggs: Bind the paste and add moisture and richness to the cakes.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown to a golden colour in the oven.
Caraway seeds: Add a distinctive aromatic, slightly spiced flavour to the cakes.

The step that matters

Rolling the paste thin. If the paste is rolled too thick, the cakes will bake unevenly and stay doughy in the middle. Thin, even cakes cook through and brown evenly.

Swap the caraway

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Carawaythe original
Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, rose, flour, sugar, 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.

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Spice Cake344 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Shrewsbury Cakes