Name: Saratoga Fruit Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound flour; 1 pound butter; 2 pounds raisins; 2 pounds English currants; ¼ pound chopped citron; 10 eggs, well beaten; ½ ounce mixed spices (cinnamon, mace, nutmeg); ⅓ cup grape wine; ⅓ cup rice bran

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Saratoga Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, butter, raisins, currants, chopped citron, and beaten eggs.
Add the mixed spices, grape wine, and rice bran to the mixture and combine well.
Pour the batter into pound-cake pans.

Bake and store

Bake in the preheated oven until done.
Store the cake in a cool, damp place wrapped in cloth for up to twelve months.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour: Forms the structure of the cake as its starches set in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the crumb a tender texture.
Raisins: Add moisture and sweetness to the cake.
Grape wine: Adds acidity and fruity aroma to the batter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, raisin, currant, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

Allspicefits better
Clovefits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, raisin, currant, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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.