Name: Plain Wheat Meal Plum Cake
Ingredients: 3 lbs granulated wheat meal; ½ oz baking soda; 8 oz sugar; 6 oz currants; 6 oz raisins; 1 oz candied lemon; muriatic acid (1 oz) mixed with buttermilk; sufficient milk to make a batter

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Plain Wheat Meal Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Sift baking soda with wheat meal into a basin.
Add sugar, currants, raisins, and candied lemon.
Mix muriatic acid with buttermilk and add to the other ingredients.
Add enough milk to create a nice batter.
Line oval tins with greased paper and pour in the batter.
Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wheat + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together585 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 (wheat, sugar, raisin, lemon, buttermilk, milk):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sugar, raisin, lemon, buttermilk, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.