Name: Dutch Cake
Ingredients: 1 piece light bread dough (size of a large teacup); 2 tablespoons butter (size of a hen's egg); 2 eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup dried currants; 1 teaspoon baking soda; cinnamon or lemon (for flavor)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Dutch Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a mixing bowl, combine the bread dough, butter, eggs, sugar, dried currants, baking soda, and your choice of cinnamon or lemon.
Mix until the batter reaches a cake-like consistency.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Bread dough: Forms the base of the batter, giving it body and a bread-like crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the cake structure as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts to lighten the batter so it rises in the oven.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon. 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.