Name: Almond Cake
Ingredients: 20 lbs prepared flour; 3 lbs cheap butter, lard, or salambo; 5 lbs moist cane sugar; 4 lbs monkey nuts; 14 eggs; essence of almonds; a little turmeric; sufficient churned milk to make a nice batter; blanched split almonds for topping

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

Weigh the prepared flour onto a clean surface and create a well in the center.
Add the sugar into the well.
Break the eggs into a bowl, shell the monkey nuts, and chop them small.
Warm the butter and add it to the well along with the eggs and churned milk.
Mix in the remaining ingredients to form a nice batter.

Bake

Weigh off 1 lb 1 oz of batter and place it into paper-lined baking hoops.
Top each with a few blanched split almonds.
Optionally, wash the tops with milk before baking.
Bake in a good oven at 350°F (175°C).

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + turmerictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,637 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + turmerictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together406 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Prepared flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its structure.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Moist cane sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Monkey nuts: Add nutty body and texture to the crumb.
Churned milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a workable consistency.

Swap the turmeric

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Capersfits better
Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, nuts, egg, almond, 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.