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Fig Cake

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 ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the raisins and figs finely.

  2. Stir the chopped raisins and figs into the boiling water and add the baking soda.

  3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  4. Add the egg, egg yolk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the fig mixture to the creamed butter and sugar.

  5. Gradually mix in the flour until well combined.

  6. Fill a cake pan and cover with boiled icing.

  7. This recipe is also nice when made in a loaf shape.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

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

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

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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