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 ↓
Lemon 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.
Add the beaten egg yolks to the mixture.
Stir in the sweet milk and baking soda.
Fold in the beaten egg whites and flour until well combined.
Grate the peel of 1 lemon and add the juice of both lemons.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake immediately.
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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Lemon + milktop 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites add lift and a light, tender structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of the lemon and milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a fine, tender texture when creamed with butter.
- Lemons
- Juice adds acidity and bright flavor, and the peel adds aroma.
The step that matters
Bake immediately after mixing. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic lemon juice and milk, and the whipped egg whites lose their lift over time. Waiting before baking lets the batter lose gas, so the cake may rise less.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, butter, 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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