Name: A Plain Cake
Ingredients: 4 pounds of flour; 2 pounds of currants; ½ pound of butter; clove to taste; caraway seeds to taste; coriander seeds to taste; grated lemon peel; milk; ½ pint of yeast

Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A Plain Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the dough

In a large bowl, combine the flour, currants, butter, clove, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, and grated lemon peel.
Wet the mixture with milk, add the yeast, and mix until well combined.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,498 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Caraway + coriandertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together185 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,435 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Clove + carawaytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the structure of the cake as its gluten network sets during baking.
Currants: Add sweetness and moist, chewy pockets throughout the cake.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Milk: Moistens the flour and helps form a cohesive batter.
Yeast: Produces gas that helps the cake rise.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, clove, caraway, coriander, lemon, milk):

Limefits better
Orangefits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, clove, caraway, coriander, lemon, 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.