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 ↓
A Very Good Cheap Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.
Rub in the butter, dripping, or lard until the mixture resembles fine oatmeal.
Add sugar, currants, candied peel, and grated nutmeg; mix thoroughly.
Beat the mixture to a stiff paste with milk or water.
Bake and cool
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Pour the batter into a greased cake tin.
Bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Once baked, turn the cake out of the tin and lean it on its side to cool.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Flour + sugartop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its gluten network sets during baking.
- Butter, dripping, or lard
- Rubbed into the flour to coat it, giving a tender, crumbly texture and rich flavor.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps browning in the baked crust.
- Currants
- Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture to a stiff paste. The liquid must be just enough to bind the dough into a stiff paste. Too much makes the batter loose and heavy, while too little leaves dry, crumbly cake that does not hold together.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, 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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