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Dessert

Parkin Cakes

A sweet oat cake made with oatmeal, golden syrup, butter, sugar, candied lemon peel, ginger, cinnamon, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Parkin Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Warm the golden syrup gradually until it becomes liquid.

  2. Rub the butter or fat into the oatmeal.

  3. Add the sugar, lemon peel, ginger, and cinnamon, then stir in the golden syrup.

  4. Add milk until the mixture drops from the spoon.

  5. Cover and set aside for 2 hours.

Bake

  1. Bake in well-greased patty pans at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Butter + milktop 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

Oatmeal
Forms the bulk and structure of the cakes.
Golden syrup
Provides sweetness, moisture, and binding so the cakes hold together.
Butter or fat
Adds richness and tenderness by coating the oatmeal particles.
Candied lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavour.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk must be added gradually until the mixture drops from the spoon. Too little leaves the mixture stiff and dry, while too much makes it slack and wet, so the cakes may spread or bake unevenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, butter, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, butter, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, 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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