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Dessert

Citron Cakes

Citron cakes are sweet cakes made with sugar, lard, molasses, honey, eggs, flour, citron, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Citron Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix the sugar, lard, molasses, honey, baking soda, eggs, flour, citron, nutmeg, and cinnamon to form a dough.

  2. Let the dough rest for five to six hours before baking.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough into a sheet and cut it into 2‑inch squares.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

Glaze and finish

  1. Boil 1½ lbs of sugar to a string consistency, then let it cool slightly.

  2. Brush the cooled sugar over the baked cakes and cut them out as marked.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Honey + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together after baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough bind and set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and honey to help the cakes rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly acidic flavor.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture that helps keep the cakes soft.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a short, moist crumb.

The step that matters

Resting the dough. Resting lets the flour fully hydrate and the dough relax, so the cakes bake more evenly and cut cleanly. Skipping the rest can leave a tougher, less uniform texture.

“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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