Name: Small Sugar Cakes of Various Kinds
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; 1 pound flour; ¾ pound dry sifted sugar; grated rind of 2 small lemons; 1 to 2 ounces caraway seeds or powdered ginger; ¾ pound dry cleaned currants; a pinch of salt; 2 to 4 eggs; milk (as needed)

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 ↓

Small Sugar Cakes of Various Kinds

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.

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix ½ pound of butter with 1 pound of flour until crumbly.
Add ¾ pound of dry sifted sugar and the grated rind of 2 lemons or your choice of flavoring.
Incorporate a pinch of salt.
Gradually add 2 to 4 lightly whisked eggs until a firm paste forms.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut into shapes with a cake tin, or drop spoonfuls onto baking sheets.
Space the cakes 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,435 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Lemon + carawaytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness, helping the dough stay short and crumbly.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as the dough sets.
Eggs: Bind the dough into a firm paste and add structure and richness.
Dry sifted sugar: Sweetens the cakes and helps them brown as they bake.

The step that matters

Gradually add the eggs. Eggs should be added slowly so the dough binds evenly into a firm paste. Adding them all at once can make the dough too wet and sticky to shape, while too little egg leaves it crumbly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, lemon, caraway, egg, milk):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, lemon, caraway, egg, 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.

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

Red Currant Jelly65 recipes

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Small Sugar Cakes of Various Kinds