Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
A Cheap Seed Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Mix the flour, sugar, allspice, and ginger in a bowl.
Melt the butter with the milk until just warm.
Combine the warm butter and milk with the yeast, then mix into the dry ingredients to form a dough.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for a few minutes.
Add seeds or currants if desired.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Allspice + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,359 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the dough and the cake together as it sets.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and softens the dough.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Melt the butter with the milk until just warm. Yeast is sensitive to heat. If the liquid is too hot it can kill the yeast, so the dough will not rise. Keeping it only warm lets the yeast stay active and produce the gas that lifts the dough.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, allspice, ginger, butter, milk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, allspice, ginger, butter, milk. 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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