Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Plain Bread 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.
Make the dough
Prepare the dough as you would for bread and let it rise.
Mix and bake
Once risen, mix in the butter, sugar, fruit, nutmeg, and cinnamon, then add the baking powder and mix well.
Grease a tin and pour in the mixture.
Bake immediately at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 gluten structure that holds the bread-like crumb together.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during the first rise, giving the dough its lift and airy texture.
- Butter, lard, or dripping
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel in the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases additional gas in the oven, giving extra rise to the cake.
The step that matters
Bake immediately after adding the baking powder. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet and mixed. Delaying the bake lets that gas escape before the structure sets, which can leave the cake dense and flat.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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