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Dessert

Old Glory Fruit Cake

A fruit cake made with raisins, citron, spices, corn flour, rye flour, and baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Old Glory Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Boil the sugar, water, raisins, citron, shortening, salt, and spices together in a saucepan for 3 minutes.

  2. When cool, add the sifted corn flour, rye flour, and baking powder. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Bake in a loaf pan in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Corn + ryetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar or syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries the spice flavour.
Corn flour
Provides starch that sets the structure of the cake as it bakes.
Rye flour
Adds gluten-light structure and a distinct, earthy flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the baking powder after cooling. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet and heated. Adding it to a hot mixture or letting the batter sit too long can weaken the rise, so the batter should be cool, mixed well, and baked promptly.

“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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