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Dessert

Dried Apple Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, molasses, salt pork, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and dates work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 119 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dried Apple 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.

Make the batter

  1. Pour boiling water over the chopped salt pork.

  2. Add the soaked and chopped dried apples and molasses.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then stir in the eggs.

  4. Add baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, and allspice.

  5. Mix in chopped dates and other fruit if desired.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Apple + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together998 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Apple + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Molasses + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide fruity bulk and moisture that keep the cake tender.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture, and a rich caramel flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and cream of tartar to make the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner to baking soda, helping the batter rise and stay light.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble and lose their binding power. Cooling first keeps the batter smooth so the eggs blend evenly and help the cake set.

Swap the dates

The recipe marks dates as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, molasses, pork, egg, cream, flour, allspice):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses, pork, egg, cream, flour, allspice. 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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