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 ↓
Drop 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the sour milk and eggs, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps give a light, tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
- Sour milk
- Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Eggs
- Add moisture and structure, binding the batter and helping it hold its shape.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and cream of tartar to produce gas for rising.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to leaven the batter and stabilise its structure.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Once flour mixes with liquid, stirring develops gluten. Overmixing makes the cake tough and dense, so stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, cream):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Tarragonfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, cream. 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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