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Dessert

Plum Cake, Plain, for Family Use

A yeast‑leavened loaf with raisins, currants, brown sugar, and spices baked in a moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plum Cake, Plain, for Family Use

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.

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl, making a hole in the center.

  2. Pour yeast mixed with lukewarm water into the hole, stirring in enough flour to form a batter.

  3. Cover with a cloth and let rise near a warm place for about 1 hour.

  4. Once risen, melt butter (or lard/dripping) in hot milk and add cold milk to warm.

  5. Add beaten eggs (if using), nutmeg or allspice, and brown sugar; knead well, adding more milk if necessary.

  6. Cover again and let rise for another hour until very light.

Bake

  1. Fold in raisins and currants.

  2. Divide dough into six well‑greased tins and bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 1 hour or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the cake together.
German yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become light.
Butter, lard, or beef dripping
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the dough.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Raisins and currants
Add sweetness and fruitiness, distributed through the crumb.

The step that matters

Second rise until very light. Yeast needs time to build gas and stretch the gluten network; under-proofed dough bakes dense, while the structure needs enough rise to hold the fruit and give a light crumb.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, sugar, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, sugar, raisin. 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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