Name: A Good Plain Cake
Ingredients: ½ lb. good dripping; ½ lb. sugar; ½ lb. currants; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 lb. flour; 3 eggs; ½ cup water

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

A Good Plain Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the dripping until creamy.
Add sugar and mix well.
Stir in currants and baking soda.
Gradually add flour, mixing until combined.
Incorporate eggs one at a time, then add water.

Bake

Pour the batter into greased tins.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Currant + flourtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Dripping: Creams with the sugar and adds richness and a tender crumb to the cake.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps the batter become light when beaten with the fat.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the batter to help it rise and brown.