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 ↓
A Good Soda Cake
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.
Make the batter
Break down the butter into small crumbs with the flour.
Mix in the sugar thoroughly.
Pour in the boiling milk and add the whisked eggs.
Stir in the grated nutmeg or lemon rind and the currants.
Beat the mixture well for 3-4 minutes.
Add the baking soda and beat lightly again.
Bake
Pour the batter into a buttered mold.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1¼ hours, or divide into two molds and bake for 45 minutes each.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Rubbed into the flour, it adds richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
- Currants
- Add pockets of fruit sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and contributes to browning in the oven.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Baking soda starts producing gas as soon as it meets moisture and acid, so it should be beaten in lightly and the batter baked promptly. Overbeating knocks out the gas bubbles and leaves a dense cake.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg. 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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