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Dessert

Banbury Cakes

A pastry filled with suet, currants, raisins, apples, almonds, and citrus, sweetened with sugar and spiced with nutmeg and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Banbury Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the suet, currants, raisins, apples, almonds, bread crumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, lemon rind, and lemon juice. Add sugar, nutmeg, and brandy to taste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out rich pastry into round pieces about 6 inches across and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Place some of the filling in the center, fold the pastry over, and press the sides together. Fold over the ends, rounding the corners to form an oval shape.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 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

Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the filling moist and tender as it bakes.
Currants
Provide chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Sour apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the filling so it stays cohesive.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry. If the edges are not pressed firmly together, the filling can leak out during baking. Sealing well keeps the filling enclosed and moist inside the pastry.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, apple, almond, bread, lemon, orange, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, apple, almond, bread, lemon, orange, sugar. 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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