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 ↓
A Good Soda Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter into the flour until very fine.
Mix in the sifted sugar.
Pour in the boiling milk and add the whisked eggs.
Stir in the nutmeg or lemon rind and currants.
Beat the mixture well and lightly.
Just before baking, stir in the baking soda.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 1 to 1¼ hours, or 30 to 45 minutes if divided into two pans.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Flour + sugartop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set, adding structure and richness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
- Currants
- Add fruit and chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Stir in the baking soda just before baking. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets moisture and acid. If the batter waits, much of that lift is lost before the oven sets the structure, so the cake may come out flat and dense.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg. 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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