Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Fruit-cake
Ingredients
Directions
Mix
In a large bowl, combine the bread dough with grated nutmeg and ground cloves.
Chop and flour the raisins, then mix them into the dough mixture.
Rise and bake
Let the mixture rise until light, which will take a few hours in summer and all night in winter.
Pour the batter into a very deep tin and bake in a shallow pan, disturbing it as little as possible.
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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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,111 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread dough
- Provides the yeasty base structure and gives the cake its light, risen crumb.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.
- Grated nutmeg
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the cake.
- Ground cloves
- Adds strong, warm aromatic spice flavour to the cake.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture rise until light. Yeast dough rises more slowly in cold conditions, so the cook must wait until the dough is visibly light rather than going by the clock. Under-proofed dough stays dense, while the rise sets the airy crumb the cake depends on.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, nutmeg, clove):
- Figfits better
- Quincefits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, nutmeg, clove. 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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