Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs, currants, citron, and grated nutmeg until well combined.
Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of water and add it to the mixture just before baking.
Pour the batter into three loaf pans.
Bake
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give structure.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps it rise.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas for rising. Dissolving it evenly and adding it just before baking keeps the gas from escaping before the batter sets, so the cake rises properly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, nutmeg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, nutmeg. 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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