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Dessert

Baba Au Rhum

A rum-soaked French cake made with yeast, flour, butter, eggs, sultanas, candied peel, apricot syrup, and old Jamaica rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Baba Au Rhum

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the yeast

  1. Make a cavity in ¼ pound of fine flour and stir in ½ ounce of dissolved German yeast and ¼ cup of tepid water. Mix and form into a ball.

  2. Wrap the ball in a cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Make and shape the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine ¾ pound of self-raising flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ pound of butter, 1 ounce of sugar, and 3-4 well-beaten eggs, mixing lightly.

  2. Add the risen yeast ball and 5 more beaten eggs, one at a time, along with 2 ounces each of chopped sultanas and candied peel. Knead thoroughly.

  3. Place the dough in a large mold and let it rise until it reaches the top.

Bake and soak

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until done.

  2. Carefully turn out the baba and saturate with the syrup made from 1 bottle of apricot syrup and ½ bottle of old Jamaica rum, heated to boiling.

  3. Let it cool before serving.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + rumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as the crumb sets.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Self-raising flour
Forms the structure of the dough and helps it rise in the oven.
German yeast
Leavens the dough so it rises before baking.
Apricot syrup
Adds moisture and sweetness when the baked cake is soaked.
Old jamaica rum
Adds moisture and a strong aroma to the soaked cake.

The step that matters

Let the yeast ball rise fully before mixing. Yeast needs time in a warm place to produce gas; if the ball has not doubled, the dough will not rise well and the baba will be dense.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Bananafits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, syrup, rum. 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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