Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Lemon 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).
Beat the butter until creamy.
Add the whipped egg whites and sugar, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar with the flour.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture.
Combine all ingredients and add lemon flavoring to taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to trap air, giving the cake lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the mixture to produce gas that leavens the cake.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture.. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed so it reacts consistently throughout the batter. Uneven distribution causes patchy rising and pockets of bitter taste.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream. 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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