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Dessert

Fruit Cake, Inexpensive

A fruit cake made with brown sugar, shortening, sour milk, flour, spices, raisins, currants, citron, and preserved orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fruit Cake, Inexpensive

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine one cup light brown sugar, scant half cup shortening, and one cup sour milk.

  2. Dissolve one rounding teaspoon soda in a little hot water and add to sour milk.

  3. Add one and one-half cups flour, one teaspoon ground cinnamon, one-half teaspoon each of cloves and allspice.

  4. Add raisins, currants, and citron rolled in a little flour.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven.

  2. Flavor is much improved by adding preserved orange peel.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

830Calories
23 gProtein
21 gFat
138 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cinnamon + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

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

  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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda to lift and tenderize the crumb.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries the spices.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.

The step that matters

Dissolve the soda fully before adding it to the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react with and release gas; if it is not evenly dissolved, pockets of soda can leave bitter spots and uneven rising, while the acid in the sour milk does the lifting.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, cinnamon, tea, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, cinnamon, tea, clove. 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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White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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