Name: Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 4 cups sugar; 1½ cups milk; 2 tablespoons cocoa; 2 cups flour; ½ cup butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 2 egg yolks

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Chocolate Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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

Boil 1½ cups of milk with 4 cups of sugar and let it cool.
In a large bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 cups of flour, ½ cup of butter, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar.

Mix and bake

Add the cooled milk mixture and the yolks of 2 eggs to the dry ingredients.
Mix well and pour into a large baking tin.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + cocoatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together643 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the batter, adding structure and a tender crumb.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and a richer mouthfeel.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Cocoa: Gives the cake its chocolate flavor and brown color.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, butter, cream, egg):

Almondfits better
Pistachiofits better
Chestnutfits better
Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, butter, cream, egg. 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.