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A baked cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, dates, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and walnut work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date Sorte

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light lemon color.

  3. Gradually add the sugar while mixing.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then slowly add to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the chopped dates and walnuts.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into the batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the mixture in a greased pan about ½ inch thick.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

  3. Pour 1 cup of hot milk over the cake when removed from the oven.

  4. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + datestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Whipped whites give the cake its light structure, while yolks add richness and color.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks become light and thick when beaten.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes tender.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the crumb.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten stiff, and gentle folding keeps that air in the batter. Stirring vigorously would deflate it, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, dates):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Mixed nutsfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, dates. 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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