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 ↓
Clove Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the whole egg and egg yolk, mixing well.
Stir in the milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, and ground cloves.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give it a light texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and carries flavor through the batter.
- Eggs
- Provide structure as they set and add moisture and richness to the crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms a smooth mixture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acid that activates the baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay tender.
The step that matters
Stir in the baking soda and cream of tartar with the milk. Baking soda and cream of tartar must react in the batter to produce rising gas, so they should be incorporated evenly and baked promptly before the bubbles escape.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, flour. 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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