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Dessert

Carrie Glass

A moist prune cake with stewed prunes, butter, sugar, flour, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Carrie Glass

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first batter

  1. Cream one cup sugar and one-half cup butter.

  2. Beat in two eggs.

  3. Stir in one-half cup sour milk with one-half teaspoon baking soda dissolved.

  4. Fold in one cup stewed prunes cut fine.

  5. Sift together one and one-half cups flour, one teaspoon baking powder, and half a teaspoon each of nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon.

  6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until just combined, then beat well.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven.

Make the second batter and bake

  1. Cream one-half cup butter with one cup sugar.

  2. Add three well beaten eggs, one cup sour cream, and one teaspoon baking soda.

  3. Stir in two cups flour sifted with one-half teaspoon each of mace, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Mix in one-half cup raisins, one-half cup walnuts, and one-half cup blanched almonds chopped.

  5. Bake in a tube pan in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1025Calories
45 gProtein
28 gFat
148 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Prunenot in our table0
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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Stewed prunes
Add moisture, sweetness, and a dense, fruity character to the cake.

The step that matters

Stir the dry ingredients in until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, stirring develops gluten. Overmixing toughens the crumb, so stop as soon as the batter is evenly combined.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream, raisin, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream, raisin, egg. 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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