Why it works: Flour and nutmeg 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 ↓
Rock Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
Rub in ½ cup of clarified dripping until no lumps remain.
Clean and pick over ½ cup of currants, then add to the flour mixture.
Stir in ½ cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg or ginger.
Add 2 oz of chopped candied peel and mix well with a wooden spoon.
In a cup, beat 1 egg with ½ cup of milk, then pour into the mixture.
Mix until a stiff paste forms.
Shape and bake
Grease a baking tin with dripping.
Spoon the mixture into rough heaps on the tin.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven when golden and ready to serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the rough heaps together as they bake.
- Clarified dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the moist dough, lifting the cakes so they rise and stay light.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Milk
- Moistens the flour so the mixture forms a stiff paste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Stiff paste before shaping. Mixing only until a stiff paste forms matters because overworking the flour develops gluten, which makes rock cakes tough. The paste should hold its shape when spooned into heaps.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, nutmeg, 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.
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