Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Marble 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Make the light batter
In another bowl, cream together the white sugar and 1 cup of butter.
Add the egg whites, sweet milk, and 3 cups of flour to the butter mixture.
Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture.
Make the dark batter
For the dark portion, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of brown sugar.
Add 1 cup of molasses, 1 cup of sour cream, and the yolks of 7 eggs.
Mix in 1 teaspoon of baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and 4 cups of flour.
Bake
Layer the light and dark mixtures in a greased cake pan and bake 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.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help set the structure.
- Flour
- Gluten and starch form the cake's structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter flavor.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity, which tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.
The step that matters
Add the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the cake; stirring them in too vigorously deflates that foam and leaves a dense, heavy crumb.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk, cream, molasses):
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk, cream, molasses. 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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