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Dessert

Dbied Apple Cake

A cake made with dried apples, syrup or molasses, eggs, sugar, sweet milk, butter, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Dbied Apple Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Soak the dried apples in warm water overnight.

  2. Chop the apples slightly.

  3. Simmer the apples in syrup or molasses for 1.5 hours.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, sweet milk, and butter.

  2. Add the simmered apples and baking soda to the mixture.

  3. Stir in enough flour to create a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) 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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Dried apples
Provide the fruit body and sweet, chewy texture once rehydrated and simmered.
Syrup or molasses
Sweetens and deepens the flavor while softening the apples during simmering.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic syrup or molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour only until a stiff batter forms. The amount of flour sets the batter's stiffness and structure. Too much flour makes the cake dense and dry, while the baking soda needs to be mixed in evenly so the cake rises uniformly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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