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Dessert

Obange Wafees

A dense cake made with suet, raisins, currants, orange pulp, mace, nutmegs, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Frances Crawford · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Obange Wafees

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the orange paste

  1. Boil oranges in three or four waters until tender. Remove pips and pulp. Pound rinds to a paste and add pulp when pounding; rub through a tammy.

  2. To a pound of pulp, add a pound and a half of sifted sugar. Take pulp and half the sugar and boil together until it pulls out in strings. Remove from heat; when cold, mix the rest of the sugar with the paste.

Roll and dry the cakes

  1. Roll the cakes out as thin as paper. Make a little at a time, as it dries very fast. Cut them round and let them dry. Use Seville oranges.

Mix the fruit

  1. Take three pounds of suet, shred very fine. Take two pounds of raisins, stone and chop fine. Take two pounds of currants, wash and dry. Take half a hundred pippins, pare, core, and cut fine. Take a pound and a half of sugar. Take a quarter ounce of mace, pound fine. Take the same of cloves. Take two large nutmegs, grate. Put all into a pan and mix well. Put into a jar and pour over half a bottle of white wine and the same amount of brandy. Mix together with a spoon.

  2. After a few days, stir in some candied citron cut fine, some candied lemon and orange peel cut fine, rind of a lemon chopped very fine, and the juice of two lemons mixed with a glass of brandy or wine. Stir all up together and let it sit for a fortnight before use. This will keep good for four months if required.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

86Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
21 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Macenot in our table0
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 Frances Crawford. 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the fruit moist and tender as it matures.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit flavour and moisture to the mixture.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the mixture and, boiled with pulp, helps preserve the candied paste.

The step that matters

Boiling the orange pulp and sugar until it pulls into strings. Boiling concentrates sugar until it sets to a thick syrup; overheating can make it hard or burnt, while underheating leaves it too wet to hold shape and preserve well.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, mace, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, mace, nutmeg, lemon. 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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