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Dessert

Suet Cake

A baked cake made with milk, flour, molasses, sugar, suet, egg, baking soda, cream of tartar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Suet Cake

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

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

  2. Beat the egg, then add the molasses and sugar, mixing well.

  3. Combine the baking soda with the milk.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and cream of tartar.

Make the batter

  1. Add the milk mixture, suet, vinegar, and spices to the flour mixture.

  2. Pour the batter into shallow pans and bake for 30 minutes.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the vinegar and cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture with a rich, earthy flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the cake moist and tender as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together and helps give the cake its structure.

The step that matters

Combining the baking soda with the milk and the acids. Baking soda only lifts the batter when it meets an acid. The milk, vinegar, and cream of tartar must be in the batter, and the batter baked promptly, so the gas is trapped while the cake sets.

“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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