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Dessert

French Cake

A rich cake with raisins, currants, almonds, wine, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

French Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit and almonds

  1. Seed the raisins.

  2. Slice the citron into very small thin pieces.

  3. Wash the currants, pick the currants, and dry the currants.

  4. Pour hot water over the almonds and let them stand for a few minutes.

  5. Press each kernel to remove the skin.

  6. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding a little water or milk to prevent oiliness.

  7. Mix the fruit together and dredge with flour to coat.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and smooth.

  2. Whisk the egg yolks until thick and stir into the butter and sugar mixture.

  3. Add the nutmeg, wine, brandy, and pounded almonds, and beat hard for five minutes.

  4. Whisk the egg whites until dry and grainy, then fold them into the batter alternately with the flour.

  5. Stir in the fruit gently.

Bake

  1. Line your pans with thick buttered paper.

  2. Pour in the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

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

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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
Whisked yolks and whites add structure and lift to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it cream to a light texture.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into the batter, they add richness and a nutty flavor.
Currants
Dried fruit adds sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites. Whites beaten until dry and grainy trap air that leavens the cake. Folding gently and alternating with flour keeps that air from collapsing out of the batter.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, wine, brandy, 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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