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 ↓
Washington Pie
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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the egg and sweet milk, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Bake and assemble
Divide the batter evenly among three round cake pans.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, layer the cakes with jelly or jam in between.
Serve
Serve with corn‑starch sauce.
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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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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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated texture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once its proteins set in the oven.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and works with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic ingredients to produce gas that leavens the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring only until smooth keeps the batter from becoming overmixed. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the layers tough, while the leavening must be evenly distributed to rise well.
“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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