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Mountain Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mountain Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Whites of 6 eggs; J^ cup cornstarch;

  2. 1}4 cups sugar; V^ cups flour;

  3. H cup butter; 2 teaspoons baking powder;

  4. H cup milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla.

  5. Proceed in the usual manner and bake in layers.

  6. Orange Filling —

  7. Grated rind of 1 orange; 1 cup sugar;

  8. Juice of 2 oranges; 1 cup water;

  9. Juice of 1 lemon; 1 tablespoon cornstarch.

  10. Dissolve cornstarch in a little of the water. Mix other

  11. ingredients (there should be one cup of juice) and cook until

  12. clear. Set avvay to cool. Spread between layers just before

  13. serving. On top layr sprinkle pulverized sugar.

  14. —Mrs. John X. Smith, Watertown, N. Y.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

668Calories
21 gProtein
7 gFat
127 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 Kaufman, Nettie M. 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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vanilla, egg, orange):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, egg, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More mountain cake recipes

White 115Rocky 11Coconut 9Spiced 7Philadelphia White 3 See all 52 →

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