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 ↓
Rock Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Wash and dry the currants.
Chop the candied peel small.
Make the dough
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles a sandy texture.
Add the sugar, ginger, baking powder, currants, and chopped candied peel, and mix well.
Beat the eggs and water together.
Pour the mixture into the batter and stir to form a paste.
Bake and serve
Place rocky lumps of the mixture on a baking tin.
Sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Remove from the tin.
Dust with caster sugar.
Serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cakes once bound with liquid and egg.
- Lard or butter
- Coats the flour particles, giving the cakes a short, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure and moisture to the cakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the cakes rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the tops brown during baking.
The step that matters
Rubbing the fat into the flour. Rub only until the mixture looks sandy. Overworking softens the fat and warms the dough, which makes the flour-fat mix greasy and the finished cakes less tender.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, milk, egg, currant):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, milk, egg, currant. 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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