Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Dutch Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderately quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, combine the bread dough, butter, eggs, currants, sugar, baking soda, and flavoring. Mix until the batter reaches a cake-like consistency.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until golden brown.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Bread dough
- Provides the base body of the batter, giving it a soft, bread-like crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the cake brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift and lighten the batter as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Dried currants
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Mixing to a cake-like consistency. The record gives no exact stopping point, so the batter can be over- or under-mixed. Overmixing develops gluten and toughens the crumb, while undermixing leaves uneven pockets of leavening, so stop once the batter is smooth and evenly combined.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon. 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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