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 ↓
Breakfast Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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 400°F (200°C).
Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Add the salt and sugar. Mix well.
Sift the cream of tartar and baking soda to remove lumps.
Add the sifted cream of tartar and baking soda to the mixture.
Make the batter
Beat the egg and milk together in a separate bowl.
Combine the wet mixture with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
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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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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Cream + sugartop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as the acid that reacts with baking soda, helping the cakes rise and lightening the crumb.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness and helps bind the batter.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
The step that matters
Mix until just combined. Once the wet and dry ingredients meet, the baking soda and cream of tartar start reacting, so overmixing develops gluten and can toughen the cakes. Stop as soon as no dry flour remains.
“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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