Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Luncheon 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the baking powder and butter into the flour until fine.
Add the caraway seeds, washed and dried currants, sugar, and thinly sliced candied peel. Mix well.
Make and bake the cake
Whisk the eggs and combine with the milk to moisten the mixture into a soft cake batter.
Butter a cake tin and pour in the batter.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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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
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and turns light.
- Currants
- Add moisture and sweetness, with chewy pockets throughout the crumb.
- Milk
- Moistens the mixture into a soft batter that bakes through evenly.
The step that matters
Rub the baking powder and butter into the flour until fine. Working the butter into the flour evenly coats the flour and spreads the fat through the mixture, which keeps the crumb tender. Leaving lumps of butter or baking powder can cause uneven texture and rising.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, caraway, sugar, egg, milk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, caraway, sugar, 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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