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Dessert

Lincoln Butter Cakes

A buttery cake flavored with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, brandy, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lincoln Butter Cakes

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.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter in a large bowl.

  2. Add the brown sugar and mix until combined.

  3. Beat in the eggs, then add the ground cloves, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, and brandy.

  4. Make a dough with part of the flour, using the rest gradually for dusting.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness and cut out shapes with a biscuit cutter.

  2. Place a piece of citron on top of each cake.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until brown.

Cool and serve

  1. Allow the cakes to cool completely before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to give the dough richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps the cakes brown.
Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the cut shapes.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Citron
Adds a candied fruit topping that contributes sweetness and aroma.

The step that matters

Baking until brown in a slow oven. A low, steady oven bakes the cakes through while sugars brown gradually. Too hot a setting would scorch the sugars before the centres set.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

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