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Dessert

One Cup Milk, Three Cups Flour, One Egg, Salt, Two Tablespoons Sugar, One of Butter, Two Teaspoons Cream of Tartar, One of Soda, One Cup Blueberries.

A simple baked blueberry cake made with milk, flour, egg, butter, sugar, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and fresh blueberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

One Cup Milk, Three Cups Flour, One Egg, Salt, Two Tablespoons Sugar, One of Butter, Two Teaspoons Cream of Tartar, One of Soda, One Cup Blueberries.

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, flour, egg, salt, sugar, and melted butter.

  2. Add the cream of tartar and baking soda, and stir until combined.

  3. Gently fold in the blueberries.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter, helping it set as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and works with baking soda to help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Blueberries
Add pockets of juicy sweetness and color throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the blueberries. Vigorous stirring develops gluten in the flour and can make the cake tough, and it can crush the berries and turn the batter purple. Folding in gently keeps the crumb tender and the berries whole.

“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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