Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Another Way to Make Pound 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.
Prepare the eggs and butter
Whisk the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.
Beat the butter to a cream in a separate bowl.
Combine the batter
As the froth rises on the eggs, add it to the butter gradually.
Continue mixing until all the egg mixture is incorporated.
Mix the flour and sugar together, then add them gradually to the mixture.
Finally, mix in the currants and the brandy.
Beat the mixture for a full hour.
Bake
Bake in a buttered tin at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Whisked and folded in to add air and structure as the cake sets.
- Butter
- Beaten with sugar-based creaming to trap air and give a rich, tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the butter hold air when creamed.
- Currants
- Add fruit sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour to the cake.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture for a full hour. Long beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, so the cake rises and bakes with an even crumb. Adding flour and currants before this point or stopping early can leave the texture dense or uneven.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy. 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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