Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Peanut Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Chill all ingredients until ice-cold.
Sift the sugar and flour twice, leaving the flour in the sifter.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of the eggs, gradually adding sugar until stiff.
Add part of the ice water and more sugar.
Add the remaining water and lemon juice until all sugar is incorporated.
Stir in half of the nut meal, a pinch of salt, and the citron.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until moderately stiff.
Add the remaining lemon juice and beat until dry and feathery.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the yolk mixture, sprinkling in some nut meal and flour as you go.
Continue folding in the remaining nut meal and flour until just combined.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into a pan and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until done.
Carefully remove from the oven and let cool.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 build a stiff base and whites, beaten to foam, lift the batter for an airy crumb.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks hold a stiff, stable structure when beaten.
- Nut meal
- Adds body, rich flavour and tenderness, since it contains no gluten to build structure.
- Pastry flour
- Provides the light structure that holds the cake together after folding.
The step that matters
Folding the beaten whites into the yolk mixture. Overmixing or deflating the whites loses the air that gives the cake its lift, so fold gently and only until just combined.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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.
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.