Name: Rich Cake, or Wedding Cake
Ingredients: 2 ½ pounds currants; ¼ pound candied citron; ¼ pound candied orange peel; ¼ pound candied lemon peel; 3 ounces blanched almonds, sliced; 2 grated nutmegs; ¼ ounce mixed spices; ⅓ cup good brandy

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Rich Cake, or Wedding Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients for Pound Cakes as directed.
Add the currants, candied citron, orange peel, lemon peel, sliced almonds, grated nutmegs, mixed spices, and brandy to the mixture.
Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,115 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lemon, almond, nutmeg, brandy):

Limefits better
Figfits better
Blackberryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lemon, almond, nutmeg, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.