Name: Dough Cake
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 1 pint sugar; 1 pint butter; 3 eggs; ½ pint stoned raisins; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; ½ teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dough Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

Mix the milk overnight to create a stiffer dough than for bread.
In the morning, combine the sugar and butter until well mixed.
Stir the sugar-butter mixture into the dough.

Finish and bake

Add the eggs, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 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

Milk: Provides the moisture that hydrates the flour and builds the dough's structure.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the cake set and hold together.
Baking soda: Helps the cake rise and aids browning during baking.
Raisins: Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done. A slow, moderate oven lets the centre of this dense, enriched dough cook through before the outside over-browns or dries. Baking until done, rather than for a fixed time, matters because the heavy dough needs longer than a lighter batter.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinthe original
Figfits about as well
Lemonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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.