Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Soften the butter by placing it in a warm spot.
In an earthen dish, cream the softened butter and sugar together.
Add the yolks of the eggs and mix well.
Stir in the milk.
Add spices and liquors after the yolks.
Fold in the beaten egg whites and flour.
Mix in fruit with the flour.
Bake and test
Bake small cakes in a hot oven (400°F/200°C).
Bake larger cakes in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C).
To check if a large cake is done, pierce it with a broom straw; it should come 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.
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 + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, and beaten whites add lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Wheat flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps cream with butter to trap air for texture.
- Fruit
- Adds moisture, flavor and sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives lift; overmixing or deflating them while folding in the flour produces a dense, heavy cake.
“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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