Name: Tea-Cakes
Ingredients: 2 pounds brown or white flour; 1 pint milk; 2 ounces butter; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ ounce German yeast; 1 teaspoon sugar; 2 teaspoons cold water

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Tea-Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the yeast with sugar and cold water until smooth.
Stir in half of the warm milk and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
Rub the butter into the flour and add the salt.
Make a well in the flour.
Pour the yeast mixture through a fine strainer into the well.
Add the remaining warm milk mixed with the beaten egg.
Mix the dough with a wooden spoon until smooth, then scrape the sides of the bowl clean.
Cover the bowl with a cloth.
Let it rise for 30-40 minutes.

Shape and prove

Grease warm baking tins with butter.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface.
Place the cakes on the tins.
Cover with a cloth.
Let them rise for 15 minutes.

Bake

Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10-12 minutes.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Brown or white flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches flavor.
Egg: Adds richness and helps bind the dough.

“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.