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 ↓
Madeira 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.
Make the batter
Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs together for 15 minutes, adding the eggs one at a time. Add the lemon extract.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and ground rice. Mix well with a wooden spoon, adding the milk gradually.
Bake
Line oval tins with white paper and weigh 1 lb. of batter in each tin. Place a slice of citron peel on top of each cake.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they are beaten in.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Unsalted butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps cream the butter to hold air for a light crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a smooth, pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs. Beating the butter and sugar for a long time traps air that leavens the cake. Adding eggs one at a time keeps the emulsion stable so the batter does not curdle or deflate.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, rice, butter, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, rice, butter, sugar, 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.
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