Why it works: Butter and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Scotch Queen Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Melt a pound of butter by putting it into a skillet on hot coals, then set it away to cool.
Sift a quarter of a peck of flour into a deep pan, and mix with it a pound of powdered sugar and a tablespoonful of powdered cinnamon and mace.
Make a hole in the middle, put in the melted butter, and mix it with a knife until you have formed a lump of dough.
If it is too stiff, moisten it with a little rose water.
Do not knead it; roll it out into a large oval sheet, an inch thick.
You may mix in with the dough half a pound of currants, picked, washed, and dried.
Shape and bake
Cut it down the middle, and then across, so as to divide it into four cakes.
Prick them with a fork, and crimp or scallop the edges neatly.
Lay them in shallow pans; set them in a quick oven and bake them until a light brown.
Storage
This cake will keep a week or two.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Butter
- Melted butter binds the flour and sugar into a dough and adds richness.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and fine texture to the dough.
- Flour (in the method)
- Forms the structure of the dough once combined with the butter.
- Currants
- Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Baking until light brown. Baking in a quick oven only until light brown sets the crust and browns the surface through the Maillard reaction. Over-baking dries this rich, butter-heavy dough and makes it hard.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar. 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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