Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Apple 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).
Place the apple pieces in a baking pan.
In a bowl, beat the eggs until light.
Make and bake the cake
Add flour, milk, sugar, baking powder, butter, and flavoring; mix until smooth.
Pour the cake batter over the apples in the baking pan.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve
Serve with sauce.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Apples
- Provide moisture and fruity flavour as they soften and release juice into the cake.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its starches set in the oven.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness through fat in the batter.
The step that matters
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Baking too briefly leaves the centre wet and dense, while overbaking dries the crumb. Golden colour and a set centre signal that the eggs and flour have finished setting.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, sugar, butter. 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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