Name: Dried Apple Fruit-cake
Ingredients: 3 cups dried apples; 3 cups cold water; 3 cups molasses; 1 cup seedless raisins (optional); 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup butter; 3 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Dried Apple Fruit-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the apples

Soak the dried apples in cold water overnight to swell them.
Chop the apples in the morning and place them in a pot with the molasses.
Stew the mixture until the apples are almost soft.
Add the raisins and stew for a few more moments.
Let the mixture cool.

Make the batter and bake

Add the flour, butter, eggs, and baking soda, then mix well.
Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples: Provide the main fruit body and chewy texture once softened in the molasses.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture while helping the cake brown.
All-purpose flour: Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Stew the apples until almost soft, then cool before adding the rest. Apples that are not softened enough stay firm in the cake, and adding eggs and baking soda to a hot mixture can cook the eggs unevenly and weaken the leavening reaction before baking.

“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.

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Molasses Cake90 recipes

Apple Cake80 recipes

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Dried Apple Fruit-cake