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 ↓
Cake, Plum, Common
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter into the flour.
Add the sugar, currants or raisins, and allspice.
Warm the milk and dissolve the yeast in it.
Mix the milk into the dry ingredients to form a soft dough.
Knead the dough well and place it into 6 buttered tins.
Rise and bake
Let the tins sit near a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough rises.
Bake the cakes for 1 to 1.5 hours.
To check if done, insert a clean skewer into the center; it should come out clean.
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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Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,359 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, 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 + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 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
- Flour
- Provides the starch and structure that hold the cake crumb together.
- Butter or good dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown as it bakes.
- Currants or raisins
- Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy pockets of moisture through the cake.
- Distillery yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the warm milk, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
- New milk
- Hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast, forming the dough and adding moisture.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth to ferment and produce the gas that lifts the dough. If the dough is too cold it rises slowly and comes out dense, so check that it has actually risen before baking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, allspice, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, allspice, 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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