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Dessert

Measure Fruit Cake

A moist fruit cake made with raisins, currants, citron, molasses, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg 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 ↓

Measure Fruit 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, molasses, sour milk, egg yolks, and brandy, then mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda and mix it in.

  4. Fold in the sifted flour alternately with the beaten egg whites.

  5. Combine the raisins, currants, and citron with 2 tablespoons of flour, then stir into the batter.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pan.

  2. Bake for 2 hours.

  3. Let the cake cool in the pan before serving.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown during baking.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and dark color to the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour and egg whites. Fold gently and stop once combined. Overmixing develops gluten and deflates the air from the beaten whites, leaving a dense, tough crumb.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, molasses, milk, 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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