Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Finely shred equal quantities of orange, lemon, and citron peel.
Blanch the almonds and chop them finely.
Sift the flour onto a sheet of paper and mix in the peel and almonds.
Make the batter
In a clean bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy.
Add the sugar and beat well, then add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
Gradually add the flour mixture, using milk as needed to achieve cake batter consistency.
Pour the batter into a round tin lined with greased paper.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 to 2 hours.
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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 + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + macetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps aerate the creamed butter for lightness.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness, and moisture, and help bind the batter.
- Currants
- Add fruity sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Creaming incorporates air into the fat, which gives the cake its lift and tender texture. Under-beaten butter leads to a dense cake, while the eggs must be mixed in thoroughly so the batter stays emulsified.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, currant, egg, almond, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, currant, egg, almond, milk. 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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