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Dessert

Food for the Gods

A walnut and date cake baked with cracker crumbs, baking powder, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Food for the Gods

Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Food for the Gods

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) and prepare a baking pan with parchment paper.

  2. Chop the walnuts and dates.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the cracker crumbs, chopped fruit, nuts, and baking powder.

  2. Beat the eggs separately, then add the sugar to the beaten yolks.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites and combine with the other ingredients.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Let it cool and store for several days before serving.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Dates + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Walnut + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

English walnuts
Add bulk and a firm, chewy texture to the cake.
Dates
Add sweetness and moisture, keeping the cake tender.
Cracker crumbs
Provide structure and absorb moisture so the mixture holds together.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Eggs
Provide structure, and whipped whites add lift to the batter.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Stirring them vigorously or too long deflates them, leaving a dense cake. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, egg, sugar):

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, egg, sugar. 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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