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Dessert

Anna Broz

A moist fruit cake made with raisins, currants, molasses, and spices, baked in loaf tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Anna Broz

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream two scant cups butter with three cups brown sugar.

  2. Add grated nutmeg, one tablespoon cinnamon, one teaspoon each of cloves and mace.

  3. Add one-half cup molasses and one-half cup sour milk. Stir all well.

  4. Add six beaten yolks, a wine glass of brandy or fruit juice, and four cups sifted flour alternately with the beaten whites of six eggs.

  5. Dissolve a level teaspoon of baking soda in a little hot water and stir in thoroughly.

  6. Add one pound raisins, one pound currants, and one-half pound citron cut small mixed with two tablespoons flour.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in two loaf tins in moderate oven for two hours.

  2. Allow to cool in pans.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

829Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Macenot 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 Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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 cake its tender, rich crumb.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
Eggs
Yolks and whites add richness, structure and lift to the batter.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as it sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the crumb.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the sour milk and molasses here, to react and leaven the batter. Dissolving it in hot water and stirring it in thoroughly spreads the reaction evenly so the cake rises without holes or dense patches.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, clove, molasses, flour, raisin, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove, molasses, flour, raisin, butter. 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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