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 ↓
Christmas Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a warm oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Sift the baking powder two or three times with the flour onto a sheet of paper.
Put the butter and sugar into a clean pan and warm in front of the fire to soften.
Weigh the fruit and clean it, removing stalks and stones.
Cut the candied peel into thin shreds.
Mix the candied peel shreds with the fruit and flour.
Break the eggs into a clean bowl and beat them.
Make the batter
Cream the softened butter and sugar by hand.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the flour and fruit mixture.
Moisten with milk to achieve a cake batter consistency.
Bake
Pour the batter into well-greased and papered round or square tins.
Bake in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 3 to 4 hours.
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 + 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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Sugar + flourtop 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).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Castor sugar
- Creams with butter to add sweetness and help trap air for a lighter texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise.
- Sultanas
- Add sweetness, moisture and chewy texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Moisten with milk to achieve a cake batter consistency.. The batter must be loose enough to bake evenly and set through; too stiff a mix can leave dense spots, while too much liquid can make the cake heavy and slow to set.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk. 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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