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Dessert

Zwieback Torte

A German cake made with grated Zwieback, almonds, spices, and egg yolks, folded with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Zwieback Torte

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolks together until well combined.

  2. Add the nutmeg, baking powder, lemon juice, Zwieback, cinnamon, grated almonds, and allspice in the order given, then mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until almost done.

  2. When nearly finished, sprinkle a little butter and sugar over the top.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, lifting the cake and giving it a light, airy crumb as they set.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the batter and help bind the crumbs together for a tender texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise.
Zwieback
Dry grated rusk gives the cake its body and absorbs moisture from the batter.
Almonds
Ground nuts add fat and a moist, tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten whites hold air bubbles that make the cake rise and stay light. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a dense, flat cake.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, egg, cinnamon, almond, allspice):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, egg, cinnamon, almond, allspice. 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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