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Dessert

Dried-apple or Economical Fruitcake

A dense fruitcake made with dried apples, molasses, raisins, spices, and butter, baked in loaf pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dried-apple or Economical Fruitcake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Soak the apples in water overnight.

  2. Drain and chop them.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the apples, molasses, and spices.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.

  5. Set aside to cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Once the molasses mixture is cool, stir in the butter, sugar, egg, flour, and baking powder.

  3. Beat hard for 3 to 4 minutes.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a few drops of boiling water.

  5. Coat the raisins in flour.

  6. Beat the dissolved soda into the batter for a minute.

  7. Gently stir in the raisins.

  8. Ensure the batter is thick enough to drop from a spoon, not pour.

Bake

  1. Prepare 2 large loaf pans lined with greased thin paper.

  2. Fill each pan halfway with batter.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  4. Reduce the heat and cover the top with brown paper, baking for a total of about 45 minutes.

  5. Test for doneness with a broom whisk; it should come out dry.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried sour apples
Provide the main fruit body and moisture, softened by soaking and gentle simmering.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, tenderising the crumb and carrying flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift the batter and deepen its colour.
N. o. molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour to the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give it structure as it cooks.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in a few drops of boiling water. Baking soda needs a liquid to dissolve fully so it spreads evenly; clumps leave pockets of bitter residue and uneven rising. Adding it after the batter is mixed keeps its leavening active for the bake.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, apple, molasses, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, apple, molasses, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, flour. 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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