Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Bread Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Beat the yolks of the eggs with the powdered sugar.
Brown the bread squares.
Pound the browned squares into crumbs.
Mix in the powdered almonds, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and rose water.
Fold in the beaten egg whites until stiff.
Bake
Grease a pan and line it with greased paper.
Pour the mixture into the pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1½ hours.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,605 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the batter with fat and emulsifiers, giving a rich, tender crumb.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the batter and help it rise and set.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks thicken and become smooth when beaten.
- Bread
- Browned crumbs add body and structure, absorbing liquid to give the cake its texture.
- Powdered almonds
- Add fat and body, giving a moist, dense texture and nutty flavor.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites until stiff. Egg whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in the batter so the cake rises and stays light during baking.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, bread, almond, cinnamon, rose):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, bread, almond, cinnamon, rose. 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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