Name: Fried Fruit Cakes
Ingredients: dough for fried milk cakes; currants; sultanas; chopped dates

Why it works: Milk and dates work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Fried Fruit Cakes

Ingredients

dough for fried milk cakes
currants
sultanas
chopped dates

Directions

Prepare the dough for fried milk cakes.
Add currants, sultanas, or chopped dates to the dough.
Fry the cakes in oil or bake them on a hot griddle plate.

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.

Milk + datestop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + datestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).