Name: A Rich Currant Cake
Ingredients: 1 lb all-purpose flour; 1 lb unsalted butter; 1 pint milk; 1 lb granulated sugar; 2 large eggs; ½ lb currants; ¼ lb mixed candied lemon and orange peel; 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

A Rich Currant Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine 1 lb of flour and rub in 1 lb of butter until well mixed.
Wash, pick, and dry ½ lb of currants.

Make the batter

Mix the currants with 1 lb of sugar, ¼ lb of mixed candied peel, and 1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg.
In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs and mix with 1 pint of milk.
Combine all ingredients thoroughly.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking tin and bake for 1 hour.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 main structure once combined with the butter and liquids.
Unsalted butter: Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning on the cake's surface.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg, lemon, orange):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg, lemon, orange. 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.