Name: Bread Cake
Ingredients: 3 cups yeast dough; 2⅔ cups sugar; 1 cup butter; 3 eggs; 1 nutmeg; raisins (to taste); mixed fruit (to taste)

Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Bread 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

Combine the yeast dough, sugar, butter, eggs, and grated nutmeg in a large bowl.
Mix with your hands until the mixture is smooth like pound cake.
Thoroughly incorporate the mixture with the yeast dough.
Add raisins and mixed fruit as desired.

Rise and bake

Let the batter rise for 30 minutes in the baking pans.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake until done.

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.

Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Yeast dough: Provides the base structure and the rising that lightens the cake.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Eggs: Add structure and richness and help bind the batter.