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Dessert

Scotch Plum Cake

A yeasted cake made with flour, sugar, currants, raisins, spices, almonds, butter, cream, sherry, brandy, eggs, and candied citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Scotch Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, currants, raisins, mace, cloves, nutmeg, lemon zest, and almonds.

  3. Melt butter in cream, then add sherry, brandy, and yeast.

  4. Beat egg yolks and whites separately, then combine with the wet mixture.

  5. Strain the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and beat for a full hour.

Bake

  1. Butter your baking hoop and add chopped citron, lemon, and orange candy to the batter.

  2. Pour the batter into the hoop and bake in the preheated oven.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites and yolks trap air and bind the batter, giving the cake its structure and lift.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, tenderizing the crumb and carrying flavor.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its body and holds the fruit in place.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Currants
Provide moisture and concentrated fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
Yeast
Produces gas that helps the batter rise and become lighter.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for a full hour. Long beating incorporates air and develops gluten, which affects the cake's lightness and texture. Under-beating leaves a dense crumb, while over-developing gluten can make it tough.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, raisin, mace, clove, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, mace, clove, nutmeg, lemon. 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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