Why it works: Cream and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓
Baking Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the cream of tartar, baking soda, and flour together five times to thoroughly mix.
Store the mixture in a dry can.
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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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream of tartar
- Provides the acid that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising.
- Baking soda
- Supplies the base that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide for leavening.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture and keeps the powder dry and free-flowing, preventing the acid and base from reacting early.
The step that matters
Sifting five times. Sifting thoroughly distributes the acid and base evenly, so every portion of the powder releases gas at a consistent rate. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of excess acid or base, which causes patchy rising and off flavors in baked goods.
“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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