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Baba

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and rum work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 149 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Baba

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Mix the dough and work for 5-6 minutes.

  2. Add the raisins, currants, and candied peel.

  3. Drop the mixture into a well-buttered cylindrical mould, filling it three-quarters full.

  4. Let it rise in a warm place until it reaches the rim of the mould.

  5. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until done.

  6. Carefully turn out onto a dish and smear with chocolate, apricot sauce, or orange cream.

  7. For the sauce, boil apricot jam, syrup, and rum, then strain through a sieve.

  8. Alternatively, mix wine, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, and beaten egg yolks over heat, then pour over the hot Baba.

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. Apricot + rumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Rum + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Currant + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, butter, apricot, syrup, rum, wine, lemon):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, butter, apricot, syrup, rum, wine, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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