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English Plum Cakes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

English Plum Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat butter and sugar until very light and creamy.

  2. Add salt and flavoring, then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Beat the mixture for 15 minutes, then stir in the sifted flour lightly.

  4. Bake in small tins 1½ inches in diameter.

  5. For icing, pour boiling water over 2½ cups sugar and stir thoroughly.

  6. Put on hot fire; when it boils, add vinegar and boil until it spins a thick thread, stirring as little as possible.

  7. Slowly pour the syrup into the stiffly beaten egg whites and beat very hard.

  8. Add vanilla and continue beating until thick like marshmallow.

  9. Spread quickly over the cake.

  10. If desired, save some icing, beat in melted chocolate, and cover the white icing gently with it.

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.

  1. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Brandy + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

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