Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Pound 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.
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter.
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Add the beaten yolks to the butter and sugar mixture.
Stir in the white wine, mace, and nutmeg.
Mix well, then fold in the beaten egg whites.
Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.
Stir in the dried currants.
Bake
Pour the batter into square tin pans.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
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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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by beating add lift, and yolks enrich the batter and help bind it.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for a light texture.
- Flour
- Its proteins set during baking to form the cake's structure.
- White wine
- Adds moisture and a mild acidity that brightens the flavour of the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold trapped air that gives lift. Stirring them vigorously deflates that air and leaves a denser cake, so fold gently until just combined.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, white wine, nutmeg, flour, currant):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, white wine, nutmeg, flour, currant. 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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