Name: A Plain Cake
Ingredients: 4 pounds all-purpose flour; 2 pounds currants; ½ pound unsalted butter; Clove, to taste; Caraway seed, to taste; Grated lemon peel, to taste; Milk, as needed; ½ pint yeast

Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Plain Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, currants, butter, clove, caraway seed, and grated lemon peel.
Gradually add milk until the mixture is wet but not too runny.
Stir in the yeast until well combined.
Mix until a dough forms, then knead lightly.
Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

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.

Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,435 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Clove + carawaytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Caraway + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, clove, caraway, lemon, milk):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, clove, caraway, lemon, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.