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 ↓
A Nice Plum Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Combine the flour, sugar, currants, and sliced candied lemon peel in a large bowl.
Beat the butter until creamy.
Make the batter
Mix the beaten butter with the dry ingredients.
Stir in the milk until well combined.
Dissolve the ammonia in 2 tablespoons of milk.
Add the dissolved ammonia to the mixture, beating until everything is thoroughly mixed.
Pour the dough into a buttered cake tin.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 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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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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Builds the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture by coating flour particles with fat.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and moistens the batter.
- Ammonia or baking soda
- Releases gas during baking that lifts and lightens the cake.
The step that matters
Dissolve the ammonia in milk and beat it thoroughly into the dough. A leavening agent only works evenly if it is fully dissolved and distributed through the batter. Thorough mixing gives an even rise and avoids pockets of harsh flavour or dense, uneven areas in the baked cake.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, lemon, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon, 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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