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 ↓
Pound 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 large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, flour, and butter until well combined.
Gradually add the brandy, currants, and any spices you like.
Fold in the candied orange or lemon rind and caraway seeds if using.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Orange + carawaytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together158 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb through its fat content.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once heated and set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the brandy, currants, and spices. Adding liquid in small amounts keeps the batter emulsified. If it is poured in all at once, the batter can curdle or separate, which affects the final texture of the cake.
Swap the caraway
The recipe marks caraway as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter, brandy, currant, orange):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Carawaythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, brandy, currant, orange. 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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