Why it works: Flour and turmeric are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cocoa-nut 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the flour, lard or butter, sugar, cocoa-nut, eggs, turmeric, and enough buttermilk to create a soft batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.
Sprinkle a little cocoa-nut on top before baking.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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 + turmerictop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
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
- Prepared flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Lard or cheap butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Moist cane sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set into the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the crumb soft.
- Cocoa-nut
- Adds moisture, fat and coconut flavor to the crumb and the top.
The step that matters
Adding enough buttermilk for a soft batter. Flour hydrates as liquid is added, and the right amount of liquid gives a soft batter. Too little makes the cake dry and dense, and too much makes it loose and heavy.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, turmeric, buttermilk):
- Almondfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Cocoathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, turmeric, buttermilk. 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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