Name: Plum-cake or Wedding-cake
Ingredients: 2 pounds of flour; 1 pound of sifted sugar; 1 pound of butter; 1 pound of chopped dried cherries; 1 pound of cleaned currants; 1 pound of shredded orange, lemon, and green citron peels; 12 eggs; ½ cup of brandy; ⅓ cup of caramel or burnt sugar coloring; 1 ounce of salt; 8 ounces of ground almonds; zest of 4 oranges; 1 ounce of pounded cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and coriander seeds (equal proportions)

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Currant + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,034 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its starches set during baking.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust as it bakes.
Ground almonds: Add moisture and a tender, rich texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Bake at a steady moderate oven temperature. Raising the oven temperature during baking can set the outside of the cake too fast, leaving the centre underbaked or causing it to crack or sink. A steady heat lets the dense batter cook through evenly over the long bake.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Blackberryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, orange, lemon, egg, brandy. 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.

Plum-cake or Wedding-cake