Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, flour, and butter until well combined.
Gradually add the brandy and currants just before pouring the batter into the baking pan.
Incorporate any spices, candied rind, or caraway seeds as desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour.
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 + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Orange + carawaytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together158 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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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).
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
- Provide structure and richness, setting the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and carries flavor through the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake's crumb as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the batter brown and stay moist.
- Currants
- Add pockets of chewy sweetness and fruitiness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Adding the brandy and currants. Adding the brandy and currants just before baking keeps the batter from being overmixed. Overmixing after flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense.
Swap the caraway
The recipe marks caraway as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter, brandy, currant, orange):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Carawaythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, brandy, currant, orange. 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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