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 ↓
Cup-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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the eggs well.
Add the butter, sugar, flour, sour cream, brandy, and rose-water to the eggs.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little sweet milk and add it to the mixture, ensuring no lumps remain.
Beat the mixture well for a few minutes.
Bake
Pour the batter into well-buttered little tins or cups, filling them only halfway.
Bake immediately until golden.
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 + 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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Butter + flourtop 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).
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
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs give the batter structure and help it rise and set when baked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the cakes brown and taste rich.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown as they bake.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity works with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of the sour cream to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda and mixing out lumps. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed, or pockets of it will leave bitter spots and uneven rising. Baking promptly after mixing keeps the gas produced by the acid-base reaction from escaping before the batter sets.
“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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