Name: Cheap Seed Cake for Children
Ingredients: 1 ½ pounds dough; ¼ pound Australian marrow; ¼ pound moist sugar; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon carbonate of soda; caraway seeds

Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cheap Seed Cake for Children

Ingredients

Directions

Mix all ingredients together.
Place the mixture in a floured bread tin.
Bake for 3 hours.

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.

Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + carawaytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Egg + carawaytop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dough: Forms the bulk and structure of the cake.
Australian marrow: Adds richness and moisture to the crumb.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and promotes gentle browning during baking.
Egg: Binds the mixture and adds structure as it sets.
Carbonate of soda: Reacts with acid in the dough to lift and lighten the cake.