Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Troy Loaf-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Sift the baking powder and flour together.
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the egg yolks, cold water, and flour mixture.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Grease two loaf pans with lard and line the pans with greased paper.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into the pans, filling them about halfway.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.
Do not open the oven door for the first 10 minutes.
If one side bakes faster, carefully turn the cake once it begins to set.
Cover with thick paper if the top browns too quickly.
Check doneness with a broom whisk; it should come out dry.
Turn the cake out onto an inverted sieve to cool.
Ice the cake or sift powdered sugar over it before serving.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps browning while creaming holds air in the batter.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and the whites lighten the batter when folded in.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Do not open the oven door for the first 10 minutes. Opening the door early lets cold air in and drops the temperature, which can cause a rising cake to sink or set unevenly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg. 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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