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Chestnut Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chestnut Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. In a bowl, combine the yolks and pulverized sugar, then mix well.

  3. Add half of the beaten egg whites to the yolk mixture and stir gently.

  4. Fold in the grated chestnuts, bread crumbs, chocolate, cloves, cinnamon, and the remaining egg whites.

  5. For the filling, boil the chestnuts until soft, then mash them smooth with sugar.

  6. Once cooled, mix in cream until you achieve a proper consistency.

  7. Serve the cake topped 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Chestnut + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chestnut + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, chestnut, bread, chocolate, cinnamon, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, chestnut, bread, chocolate, cinnamon, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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