Name: Seed Cake, Common
Ingredients: 1 quart of dough; 1 lb good dripping (or butter); 10 oz moist sugar; ½ oz caraway seeds; 1 egg

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Seed Cake, Common

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

If using store-bought dough, place it in a basin covered with a cloth in a warm place to rise.
Spread the dough on a floured surface, then add the dripping, egg, and sugar.
Rub the ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.

Bake

Transfer the mixture to a buttered cake tin.
Bake for just over 2 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + carawaytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Butter + carawaytop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,273 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dripping or butter: Adds fat for a rich, tender crumb and a buttery flavour.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture to the cake.
Egg: Helps bind the mixture and gives structure as it sets.
Caraway seeds: Adds the warm, aromatic flavour that defines the seed cake.