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Dessert

Scrap Cakes

A sweet cake made from leftover fat, flour, sugar, currants, candied lemon peel, allspice, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,083 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Scrap Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Render the fat

  1. Cut the leaf fat into small pieces.

  2. Place the cut leaf fat in a large dish.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until it reduces to oil, with small pieces floating on the surface.

Make the dough

  1. Gather the scraps.

  2. Place the scraps in a bowl with the flour.

  3. Rub the mixture together well.

  4. Add the currants, sugar, candied peel, and ground allspice.

  5. Mix the mixture thoroughly.

  6. Moisten with enough cold water to form a nice paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough out thin.

  2. Cut the rolled dough into shapes.

  3. Bake the shapes in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 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. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  2. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  3. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Leaf fat
Renders to oil and provides the fat that makes the dough short and tender.
Flour
Forms the structure of the paste once moistened with water.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture to the dough.
Currants
Add fruitiness and chewy texture scattered through the dough.
Candied lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and sweetness to the dough.

The step that matters

Moisten with enough cold water to form a nice paste. Too little water leaves the dough crumbly and hard to roll, while too much makes it sticky and tough. Cold water keeps the fat from softening before shaping, so the dough stays workable and bakes up tender.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, lemon, allspice):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, lemon, 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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