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Dried-apple or Economical Fruit-cake

A moist fruit cake made with dried apples, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 Fruit-cake

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 fruit

  1. Soak the dried apples in water overnight.

  2. Drain and chop the soaked apples.

  3. Combine the chopped apples, molasses, and spices in a saucepan.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.

  6. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Stir the cooled molasses mixture into the butter, sugar, egg, flour, and baking powder.

  3. Beat the mixture hard for 3 to 4 minutes.

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

  5. Beat the dissolved baking soda into the batter for a minute.

  6. Coat the raisins in flour until well covered.

  7. Gently fold the floured raisins into the batter.

Bake

  1. Prepare two large loaf pans lined with greased parchment paper.

  2. Fill each pan with the 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.

  5. Bake for an additional 30 minutes.

  6. Test for doneness with a broom whisk; it should come out clean when the cake is done.

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. Flour + raisintop 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried sour apples
Supply tender fruit and concentrated flavour once soaked, simmered and chopped into the cake.
New orleans molasses
Adds dark colour, moisture and deep sweetness, and helps the crumb stay soft.
Butter
Provides fat for a rich, tender crumb and a fine texture when creamed with sugar.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Dissolving and beating in the baking soda. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and mixed in evenly so it reacts with the acidic molasses and lifts the batter uniformly. Uneven distribution can cause dense spots or holes.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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