Name: Biscuits, Cakes, &C
Ingredients: 1 ounce ginger; as much stiff flour as needed to make a stiff paste; butter for greasing the tins

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Biscuits, Cakes, &C

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 ounce ginger
as much stiff flour as needed to make a stiff paste
butter for greasing the tins

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Add 1 ounce of ginger to a bowl.
Gradually mix in enough stiff flour to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

Shape and bake

Cut into cakes and place them on buttered tins.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ginger + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,152 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

Ginger: Provides the main spicy aroma and flavor of the cake.
Stiff flour: Forms the structure of the paste that holds the cakes together as they bake.