Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Rich Plum Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the batter
Beat the butter until creamy.
Add the sifted sugar and flour, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy and the yolks until smooth.
Combine the egg whites and yolks with the butter mixture.
Stir in the grated nutmeg, currants, candied peels, and brandy.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake for two 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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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,311 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Whites add lift and structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
- Fine flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
- Currants
- Add fruit sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until frothy. Whites whipped to a foam trap air that helps the cake rise; under-beaten whites yield a denser cake, while the batter must be combined gently to keep that air.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, nutmeg, brandy):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, nutmeg, 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.
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