Name: A Very Good Seed-cake
Ingredients: 1 wineglassful of brandy; 6 eggs; two circular stones; one within hearing; three sieves; one batch of household bread as in spain would last them a week; eight donkey-loads of bread they send every night from their oven; 3 lbs; two long narrow wooden tables on trestles are then placed down the room; one side of the tables; mace; nutmeg

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 ↓

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.

Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Brandy + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together976 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter (in the method): Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour (in the method): Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb once baked.
Sugar (in the method): Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps aerate the batter.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, and help bind and lift the batter.
Brandy: Adds aroma and flavour to the cake.
Caraway seeds (in the method): Contribute a warm, aromatic flavour to the cake.

The step that matters

Beating the cake for 10 minutes. Once the flour is in, prolonged beating develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough and dense rather than light. Beat only as long as the step directs.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, egg, bread, nutmeg):

Cinnamonfits better
Clovefits better
Allspicefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, egg, bread, nutmeg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Brandy	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0

A Very Good Seed-cake