Name: Cornish Tea Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup flour; ⅓ cup butter; 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon sifted sugar; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; milk (as needed)

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 ↓

Cornish Tea Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

Rub the butter into the flour.
Melt the baking powder in a little milk.
Beat the eggs, yolks and whites separately.
Mix all the ingredients well together.
Put into a shallow cake tin.

Bake and serve

Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for half an hour.
When done, cut into thick slices, butter liberally, and serve very hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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 cake as its starch sets during baking.
Eggs: Add structure, richness and lift, helping the cake hold its shape.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly.
Milk: Adds moisture and dissolves the baking powder so it spreads evenly.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for half an hour.. Steady oven heat lets the batter rise and set before the surface browns too far. If the oven is too cool, the cake stays dense and may not rise properly; if too hot, the outside browns before the centre is cooked through.

“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.