Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the butter to a cream.
Gradually add the sugar, then the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.
Slowly mix in the flour until well combined.
Beat the mixture for one hour.
Bake
Pour the batter into a buttered tin pan or small pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 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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Rose + carawaytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together93 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Rose + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together560 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb, and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth mixture.
- Egg whites
- Trap air when beaten, helping the cake rise and become light.
The step that matters
Slowly mix in the flour until well combined. Once flour meets liquid, stirring develops gluten. Overmixing at this point makes the crumb tough and dense, so stop as soon as the flour is incorporated.
Swap the caraway
The recipe marks caraway as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg, brandy):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Carawaythe original
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg, brandy. 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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