Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Batter 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 oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine the cream, sour milk or buttermilk, eggs, salt, and baking soda.
Stir the mixture well until fully combined.
Gradually add the sifted flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a deep baking dish.
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve hot with butter.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the stiff batter structure that holds the cake together.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Adds acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes the acidity of the sour milk and produces gas for rising.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving a tender, rich crumb.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour gradually until the batter is stiff. Adding flour gradually lets you control the batter's consistency. Too much flour at once can make the cake dense and tough, while too little leaves it too loose to hold its structure.
“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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