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 Very Good Cheap Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.
Cut in butter or dripping until the mixture resembles fine oatmeal.
Add sugar, currants, candied peel, and grated nutmeg; mix thoroughly.
Beat in enough milk or water to form a stiff paste.
Bake and cool
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pour batter into a greased tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean.
Once baked, turn the cake out of the tin and let it cool on its side.
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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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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Butter or dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown slightly.
- Currants
- Provide chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beat in enough milk or water to form a stiff paste. Too little liquid leaves dry, crumbly pockets of flour, while too much makes a loose batter that spreads and bakes heavy. A stiff paste gives the cake a firm, even structure.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, milk. 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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