Name: Jam Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; 3 eggs; 1 cup jam; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon cloves; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup sour milk

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jam Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

Cream together the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the jam, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and baking soda.
Mix in the sour milk until well combined.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour.

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.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk's acidity to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Sour milk: Provides moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda for rising.
Jam: Adds sweetness, moisture and fruit flavour to the crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps tenderise the crumb when creamed with butter.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk):

Cardamomfits about as well
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well
Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk. 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.