Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 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
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl until well combined.
Flour the currants and other fruits to prevent them from sinking.
Make the batter
Gradually add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing well.
Fold in the floured fruits and the flour until just combined.
Pour the batter into two greased bread pans.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours, or until a toothpick 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 + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 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).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set and help bind the batter together while adding richness.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network and sets during baking, providing the cake's main structure.
- White sugar
- Creams with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and tender browning.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit and sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Flouring the currants and fruits. Dry flour coats the fruit so it sits suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom during baking, which keeps the fruit evenly distributed.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, orange, egg, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, orange, egg, almond. 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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