Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Soda 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter into the flour.
Add the sugar, currants, and flavorings.
Beat the egg well and mix it with the dry ingredients.
Leave 1 tablespoon of buttermilk to dissolve the baking soda, then add it to the batter and mix well.
Bake
Pour the batter into buttered molds.
Prick with a skewer; if it comes out clean, the cakes are done.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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 structure of the cake as the batter sets.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and carrying fat through the crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the ingredients together and adds structure and moisture.
- Buttermilk
- Reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds a slight tang.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps give it a fine, tender crumb.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in buttermilk before adding it to the batter. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in buttermilk first and mixing it evenly through the batter spreads the gas bubbles throughout, so the cake rises evenly rather than leaving pockets or patches of bitter, unreacted soda.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, currant, egg, buttermilk, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, currant, egg, buttermilk, nutmeg. 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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