Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓
Pound Plum-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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift in flour and mix until just combined.
Fold in grated nutmeg, currants, and chopped candied peels.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
Bake
Bake for about 1 hour or 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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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).
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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a tender, rich crumb and flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as the cake sets.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the cake's main structure once its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed.
- Currants
- Add concentrated fruity sweetness and chewy bursts throughout the crumb.
The step that matters
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beating air into the butter and sugar creates the cake's lift and texture. Under-creaming leaves a dense crumb, while adding eggs too quickly can curdle the batter.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, nutmeg, orange, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, nutmeg, orange, lemon. 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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