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 ↓
Jumbles
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.
Make the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the egg, milk, lemon juice, and lemon rind; mix well.
Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda; combine with the wet ingredients.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough thinly and cut into rounds or strips.
Shape the strips into small cakes by winding them around your palm.
Bake for about 10 minutes until golden.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the jumbles together as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cakes a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds moisture and structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough and reacts with baking soda to help it rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the dough.
The step that matters
Shape the strips into small cakes by winding them around your palm.. Shaping the dough while it is still thin and workable keeps the strips from tearing. Overworked or warm dough becomes sticky and hard to handle, which can lead to uneven, misshapen jumbles.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream. 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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