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 ↓
Coffee 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).
In a bowl, mix flour, powdered sugar, butter, potato flour, egg yolks, whisked egg whites, whole egg, cognac, and salt until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a buttered cylinder mold.
Bake and finish
Bake until done, then turn out of the mold and let cool.
While cooling, beat 4 or 5 egg whites until firm, then gradually sift in ½ lb caster sugar and whip until stiff.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and moisture, and help bind the batter into a smooth mixture.
- Egg whites
- Whisked whites add lift and a light, airy crumb to the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps it bake to a fine, tender texture.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites for the topping. Egg whites must be beaten until firm and the sugar added gradually so they form a stable foam. Under-whipped or greasy whites will not hold their volume.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg):
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg. 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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