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 ↓
Sultana Cake
Ingredients
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.
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, rub ½ lb of butter into 4 lb of flour.
Add ¼ lb of sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and ¼ lb of sultanas.
Grate the rind of 1 lemon into the bowl.
Chop 1 oz of candied peel and add it to the mixture.
In another bowl, combine ½ cup of milk with the yolk of 1 egg.
Stir the milk and egg mixture into the other ingredients until well combined.
Whisk the egg white until stiff and gently fold it into the batter.
Bake and cool
Grease a cake tin.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Remove the cake 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.
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).
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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).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 structure of the cake crumb as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the crumb and add richness.
- Egg
- The yolk enriches and binds the batter, while the whisked white adds lift and structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning in the finished cake.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg white. Stiffly whisked egg white holds air that lifts the batter. Overmixing or stirring it in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a denser cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, 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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