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Dessert

Bread Torte

A sweet layered cake made with bread crumbs, almonds, eggs, spices, sugar, brandy, and a thickened almond filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bread Torte

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 the torte

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, grated almonds, beaten eggs, cinnamon, allspice, sugar, grated nutmeg, and brandy.

  3. Divide the mixture into two layers and bake until set.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, cornstarch, and grated almonds in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the filling until thick, then let it cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the baked layers.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Forms the bulk of the torte and gives it a light, soft body.
Grated almonds
Adds moisture, richness and nutty flavor to the layers.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking to hold the layers together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly in the oven.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it boils, giving it a spreadable set.

The step that matters

Boil the filling until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, and the eggs must be cooked enough to set. Stopping too early leaves a runny filling that will not hold between the layers.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

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