Name: Plum Loaf, Plain
Ingredients: 2 pounds all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 8 ounces dried currants; 4 ounces brown sugar; ½ nutmeg, grated; ½ ounce German yeast; ¾ pint lukewarm milk; 4 ounces butter or beef dripping

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plum Loaf, Plain

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 the dough

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, currants, sugar, and grated nutmeg.
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk that has melted the butter or dripping.
Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture and knead to a smooth paste.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a buttered tin.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Check if the loaf is done by inserting a skewer; it should come 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

All-purpose flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure.
German yeast: Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise.
Butter or beef dripping: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast, and helps browning in the crust.
Dried currants: Provide sweet, chewy fruit pieces distributed through the dough.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

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