Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,917 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the syrup
Preheat oven to 325°F to 350°F (about 175°C).
Combine water or beer, raisins and nuts if using, brown sugar, butter, oil or margarine, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice if using.
Boil for 3 minutes.
Mix and bake
Sift together the other ingredients.
When syrup is cool, mix all ingredients.
Put mixture in a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes or until done.
Cool and serve
Cool for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from pan.
Frost if desired.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Raisin + cinnamontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the cake's main structure once the batter sets in the oven.
- Butter, oil, or margarine
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and moisture in the finished cake.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and taste rich.
- Levure chimique (baking powder)
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Water or beer
- Provides liquid to dissolve the sugar and hydrate the flour in the batter.
The step that matters
Cool the syrup before mixing. Adding the batter ingredients to hot syrup can start the baking powder reacting too early and weaken the rise. Letting the syrup cool first keeps the leavening active for the oven, which helps give a lighter, more even crumb.
Flavor stand-ins for the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, nuts, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice):
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Orangeabout as good a flavor fit
- Appleabout as good a flavor fit
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beer, nuts, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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