Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, whip the eggs with the castor sugar until well combined.
Mix in the flour and baking powder until smooth.
Fold in the currants, sultanas, and thinly cut peel.
Melt the butter and mix it thoroughly into the batter.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold lined with greased paper.
Bake for 1.5 hours or until a skewer comes 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.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Whipped with sugar to trap air and give the cake structure as it sets.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when whipped with the eggs.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture, and helps the crumb feel moist.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Fold in the currants, sultanas, and peel gently. Heavy fruit sinks and can deflate the batter if overmixed. Gentle folding keeps the air from the whipped eggs so the cake rises evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter. 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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