Name: Queen Cakes
Ingredients: 2 oz currants, cleaned; a grate of nutmeg; the thin rind of half a lemon, chopped finely; 1 tablespoon brandy; 4 oz Paisley flour; butter for greasing

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Queen Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl using a wooden spoon.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture resembles a light sponge.
In a separate bowl, mix the currants, lemon rind, and flour.
Stir this mixture into the beaten eggs, then add the nutmeg, lemon juice, and brandy.
Stir the mixture for several minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and prepare queen cake tins by greasing and flouring them.
Fill the tins three-quarters full with the mixture and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Unmold the cakes and place them on a wire rack to cool.
Optionally, coat with chocolate icing, water icing, or royal icing, or serve plain.

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.

Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, lemon, brandy, flour, butter):

Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, lemon, brandy, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.