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 ↓
Family Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Rub butter or dripping into flour until fine.
Clean sultanas or currants by rubbing them on a wire sieve with a little flour.
Chop mixed peel finely.
Smooth out lumps from cream of tartar.
Add fruit, sugar, and cream of tartar to flour.
Dissolve bicarbonate of soda in a little milk.
Mix and bake
Mix all ingredients into a stiff batter with soda milk, adding more milk as needed.
Pour mixture into buttered cake tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
- Butter or clarified beef dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender crumb.
- Sultanas or currants
- Provide moisture and sweetness through the cake as dried fruit.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar and milk to make the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts with the bicarbonate of soda to produce gas for rising and adds mild acidity.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in milk before mixing. Bicarbonate of soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the cream of tartar. Unevenly dissolved soda can leave bitter patches or uneven rising. Mixing it into a stiff batter then keeps the gas bubbles spread through the cake.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, cream, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, cream, milk. 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.
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe 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.