Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rock Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine ½ pound of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
Rub ¼ pound of clarified dripping into the flour until no lumps remain.
Clean and pick over ¼ pound of currants to remove any stones, then add them to the flour.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of ground ginger or grated nutmeg and ¼ pound of sugar.
Chop 2 ounces of candied peel into pieces and add to the mixture.
Mix all ingredients together with a wooden spoon.
In a cup, beat 1 egg with ½ cup of milk, then pour into the mixture and stir until a stiff paste forms.
Shape and bake
Grease a baking tin with dripping.
Using two forks, divide the paste into small portions and place them in rough heaps on the tin.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven when done; the cakes are ready to serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk 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 structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
- Clarified dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the heat, helping the cakes rise and stay light.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and adds moisture and structure to the paste.
- Milk
- Moistens the flour so the mixture forms a stiff, workable paste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg and milk to a stiff paste. Too much liquid makes the paste slack and the cakes spread instead of holding rough heaps. Stop stirring once the paste just comes together, so the baking powder's rise is not weakened by overworking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk. 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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