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Dessert

Molasses Pound-cake

A moist pound cake flavored with molasses, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, mace, raisins, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Molasses 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

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar.

  2. Beat in the eggs, then mix in the molasses and milk.

  3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and mace.

  4. Combine the wet and dry mixtures and beat thoroughly.

  5. Fold in the raisins and citron.

Bake

  1. Bake in small tins at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift the batter and help it rise.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of moisture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry mixtures and beat thoroughly. Beating develops gluten in the flour, giving structure, but overbeating can make the cake tough. Mixing until smooth and evenly combined keeps the texture fine and even.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon. 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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