Name: Indian Pound Cake
Ingredients: ¾ pound sugar; 9 ounces Indian meal; ¼ pound wheat flour; ½ pound butter; 1 grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 8 eggs; 4 tablespoons brandy (or rose-water)

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 ↓

Indian Pound Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the wheat flour and Indian meal together.

Make the batter

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs and add them to the butter mixture.
Stir in the flour, spices, and brandy (or rose-water). Mix well until fully combined.

Bake

Line a baking pan with buttered parchment paper and pour in the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together537 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together359 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter: Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the creamed batter hold air.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a lighter crumb.
Indian meal: Gives the cake its coarse, grainy texture and body.
Wheat flour: Provides structure as the proteins set during baking.

“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.