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Dessert

Farmers' Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Farmers' Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Soak the dried apples overnight.

  2. Cook the soaked apples in molasses until cold.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the butter, brown sugar, sour milk, raisins, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and eggs.

  2. Add flour gradually until the batter is very stiff.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide moisture and natural sweetness, softened by soaking and cooking in molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color and deep flavor to the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to help the cake rise and brown.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the stiff batter together.

The step that matters

Add flour gradually until the batter is very stiff. Adding flour in portions lets you judge stiffness and avoid too much flour, which makes a dry, heavy cake. Overmixing once flour is in develops gluten and toughens the crumb.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, milk, raisin, nutmeg, allspice. 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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