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Dessert

Fruit Jumbles

A sweet baked cake with currants, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fruit Jumbles

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites and flour gradually.

  5. Add the spices and currants, mixing until just combined.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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, giving the batter a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the batter and beaten whites add lift and structure as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as the batter sets during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the milk and heat to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture and browning.
Currants
Add tart, chewy fruit pieces and sweetness throughout the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites and flour. Gentle folding keeps the air in the beaten whites. Overmixing deflates the batter, reducing lift and producing a dense, tough texture.

Swap the allspice

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

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

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

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