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 ↓
Hickory Nut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar.
Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.
Mix the beaten yolks with the butter and sugar.
Stir in the milk.
Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.
Add the flour mixture to the batter.
Fold in the chopped hickory nuts.
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the batter into a buttered and floured pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, or in small pans.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour 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 cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and emulsify, while whipped whites lighten the batter and add structure.
- Butter
- Fat tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor through the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps create a tender, lightly browned crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that lifts the cake. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing, so the cake stays light and well risen.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Milletfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour. 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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