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Dessert

Nut and Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with sugar, nut cocoa, eggs, almond meal, raisins, citron, and orange peel or nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Nut and Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and nut cocoa until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Fold in the almond meal, raisins, citron, and grated orange peel or nutmeg.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites without stirring or beating.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the mixture into cake tins and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Once done, remove from the oven and turn the cake bottom side up on a rack.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cocoa + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and the whites, folded in beaten, give the cake its light structure.
Almond meal
Provides the main body and nutty flavour, forming the crumb of the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a smooth, creamed base.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring or beating them deflates that foam, leaving a dense cake, so they must be folded in gently.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond, raisin, orange. 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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