Margaretha Fried Cakes

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.

1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together78,219 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together106,462 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together88,785 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together77,875 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs

Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the cake.

Sour milk

Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise and adds tenderness.

Baking soda

Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that leavens the dough.

Lard

Adds fat for tenderness and carries heat for frying to a golden brown crust.

Sugar

Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.

Flour

Forms the gluten-based structure that lets the dough be rolled and cut.

The step that matters