Why it works: Plum and milk work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 406 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Plum Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine 1 lb flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt in a bowl.
Rub ¼ lb clarified dripping into the flour until no lumps remain.
Add ½ lb plums or currants (washed and dried) to the flour mixture.
Cut 2 oz candied peel into small pieces.
Add the candied peel and ½ lb sugar to the bowl.
Make the batter
Beat 1 egg with ½ cup milk in a separate bowl.
Stir the egg and milk mixture into the dry ingredients until well combined.
Bake and serve
Grease a tin with dripping.
Pour the mixture into the greased tin.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.
Turn the cake out of the tin and let it cool on its side against a plate.
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.
-
Plum + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together406 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and turn light.
- Clarified dripping
- Coats the flour particles, giving the cake a tender, short crumb and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown on the outside as it bakes.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture so the batter can set into a soft crumb.
The step that matters
Rubbing the dripping into the flour. The fat must be worked fully into the flour until no lumps remain. Fat coats the flour proteins and starch, limiting gluten development, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and the fat is spread evenly through the crumb.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Plumthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, milk. 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.
More plum cake recipes
You might also like
Mixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe 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.