Name: Rout Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; ½ pound fresh butter, washed in rose water; ¼ pound brown sifted loaf sugar; ¼ pound sweetmeats, cut small; ¼ pound well-cleaned currants; 3 large eggs, well beaten; 1 to 2 tablespoons brandy

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 ↓

Rout Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 pound all-purpose flour
½ pound fresh butter, washed in rose water
¼ pound brown sifted loaf sugar
¼ pound sweetmeats, cut small
¼ pound well-cleaned currants
3 large eggs, well beaten
1 to 2 tablespoons brandy

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Add the sugar, sweetmeats, and currants; mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add them to the mixture.
Stir in the brandy.
Drop the mixture in rough knobs onto floured baking sheets.

Bake

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together494 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Rose + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together560 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour particles and carrying fat into the crumb.
Brown sifted loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown as they bake.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure and moisture as they set in the oven.
Currants: Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cakes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, rose, sugar, egg, brandy):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits about as well
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, rose, sugar, 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.