Why it works: Butter and milk 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Beat the mixture until well combined.
Divide the batter into two greased loaf pans and bake for about 30‑35 minutes.
Make the lemon jelly
For the jelly, beat together ¾ pound of sugar, ¼ pound of butter, and 6 eggs in a bowl.
Place the bowl in a dish of hot water and heat until warm.
Stir in the grated lemon rind and juice until thick and smooth.
Assemble
Once the cakes are baked, split them and spread the warm jelly in between.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and, with the jelly, add structure and richness as they set.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour in the cake and jelly.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the jelly thicken to a smooth texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic ingredients to help the cake rise.
The step that matters
Heating the jelly gently. Heating the eggs, sugar, and butter gently in hot water thickens them into a smooth custard. Too much heat can scramble the eggs and leave the jelly lumpy, so it should be warmed, not boiled.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk, 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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