Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
English Walnut 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the egg whites and mix well.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
Stir in the lemon and vanilla flavoring.
Toss the chopped walnuts in a little flour.
Fold the floured walnuts into the batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, 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.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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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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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,730 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Creams with butter for aeration and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
- Egg whites
- Add moisture and help bind and give structure to the batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise and become airy.
- Walnuts
- Add texture and nutty flavor; flouring them helps keep them spread through the batter.
The step that matters
Fold the floured walnuts into the batter. Folding gently preserves the air trapped in the creamed butter and sugar and the leavening's bubbles. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, walnut, egg, milk, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, walnut, egg, milk, vanilla. 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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