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Dessert

Loaf Cake

A yeast-leavened loaf cake with raisins, currants, citron, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Loaf Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix the milk with the flour and yeast.

  2. Let the mixture stand in a warm place overnight.

  3. Beat the eggs, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until very light.

  4. Mix the beaten mixture with the dough thoroughly and beat for a long time.

Add fruit and bake

  1. When the dough has risen again, add the raisins, currants, and citron, dredging with flour.

  2. Put the mixture into a pan and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until done.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure and crumb.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a softer, richer crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and feeds the yeast, and helps the crust brown.
Milk
Provides moisture and hydrates the flour to form the dough.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs, sugar, butter and spices until very light. Beating whips air into the fat and eggs, creating bubbles that add lightness before the dough rises and bakes. Under-beating leaves a denser crumb.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

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