Name: White Fruit Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound white pound cake or bride cake batter; 2 pounds chopped blanched almonds; 2 freshly grated coconuts; 1 pound light green citron; 1 pound crystallized cherries, halved; French brandy, to taste; Bitter almond extract, to taste

Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Ingredients

1 pound white pound cake or bride cake batter
2 pounds chopped blanched almonds
2 freshly grated coconuts
1 pound light green citron
1 pound crystallized cherries, halved
French brandy, to taste
Bitter almond extract, to taste

Directions

Prepare a white pound cake or bride cake batter.
Fold in the chopped blanched almonds, grated coconuts, light green citron, and halved crystallized cherries.
Flavor the mixture with French brandy and bitter almond extract to taste.

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.

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.

Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Coconut + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).