Name: Egoless Fruit Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup chopped raisins; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups all-purpose flour

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Egoless Fruit 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the chopped raisins, cloves, cinnamon, sour milk, and baking soda. Mix well.
Gradually add the flour, stirring until combined.
Pour the batter into a loaf pan.

Bake

Bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the crumb when creamed with butter.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sour milk: Provides moisture and acidity that react with baking soda to help the cake rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Chopped raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Stirring only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon, milk, flour. 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.