Name: Chkistmas Cake
Ingredients: 3 pounds currants; 1½ pounds moist sugar; 1 whole nutmeg, grated; ¼ pound candied lemon peel, finely minced; 2 tablespoons brandy; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder; Butter for greasing

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chkistmas Cake

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

If using yeast, let the dough rise before adding other ingredients.
Butter the tins and line them with buttered paper.

Make and bake

Mix currants, moist sugar, nutmeg, candied lemon peel, brandy, and beaten eggs in a large bowl.
Add baking powder and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tins.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours.

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.

Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants: Provide the bulk of the fruit, adding chewy texture and natural sweetness to the cake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, lemon, brandy, egg, butter):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, lemon, brandy, egg, butter. 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.