Name: Another Way to Iviake Currant Cakes
Ingredients: 6 ounces currants; 6 ounces pounded loaf sugar; 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1/2 pound butter; 3/4 pound dried and sifted flour; 3 beaten egg yolks; 2-3 tablespoons rose or orange-flower water

Why it works: Nutmeg and flour 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 ↓

Another Way to Iviake Currant Cakes

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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well mixed.
Add the currants, sugar, nutmeg, egg yolks, and rose or orange-flower water, then mix until combined and form a dough.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut into round cakes using a wine glass or tin.
Place the cakes on a baking sheet and bake until golden.

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 + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together494 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour 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: Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the dough.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to browning as the cakes bake.
Currants: Add fruity sweetness and chewy bits throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Baking until golden. Sugar and proteins brown during baking, so the cakes can darken quickly. Watching for golden color rather than relying only on time helps avoid over-browning or underbaking the centers.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg, rose):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg, rose. 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.

Red Currant Jelly65 recipes

Currant Ice Cream32 recipes

Currant Sherbet9 recipes

Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Another Way to Iviake Currant Cakes