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 ↓
Plain 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. 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 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Rub the clarified dripping into the flour until no lumps remain.
Clean the currants by rubbing them in a cloth, then add them to the flour mixture.
Stir in the ground allspice and brown sugar.
Pour in the milk and mix everything together until well combined.
Bake and cool
Grease a half-quart tin with a piece of dripping.
Pour the batter into the greased tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
Remove the tin from the oven and turn the cake out to cool on its side.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,359 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Forms the main structure of the cake as gluten develops when mixed with liquid.
- Clarified dripping
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and provides moisture for the batter to set when baked.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to browning of the crust.
- Currants
- Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chew throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Rubbing the dripping into the flour. Rubbing fat into flour until no lumps remain coats the flour particles, limiting gluten development so the crumb stays tender rather than tough. Lumps of fat or unevenly mixed flour can leave pockets of dense or greasy texture.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, allspice):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, allspice. 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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