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Dessert

The Lincoln War Cake

A buckwheat and corn flour cake with raisins, figs, nuts, and spices baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The Lincoln War 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

  1. Sift together the buckwheat flour, Graham or corn flour, baking powder, and spices.

  2. Cut and dredge the fruit and nuts.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the Mazola oil, Karo syrup, and egg yolks.

  2. Add the sifted flour mixture, then fold in the nuts and fruit.

  3. Finally, gently fold in the egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for 2 hours at 300°F (150°C).

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.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buckwheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Fig + pecanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Buckwheat flour
Provides the dense, hearty body that gives this cake its structure.
Eggs
Bind the batter and, with the whites folded in last, add lift and a lighter crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise during baking.
Karo syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps keep the cake tender and sticky.
Mazola oil
Adds fat for moisture and a tender crumb.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture through the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold air that makes the cake light; overmixing deflates them and produces a dense, heavy crumb.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buckwheat, flour, corn, egg, syrup, raisin, fig):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against buckwheat, flour, corn, egg, syrup, raisin, fig. 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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