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Dessert

Bread Torte

A sweet cake made with powdered sugar, eggs, spices, rye bread, and optional chocolate, almonds, citron, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 Torte

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks and powdered sugar for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the spices and stir for a little longer.

  3. Incorporate the almonds, citron, lemon rind, and juice.

  4. If desired, add the grated chocolate.

  5. Wet the grated rye bread with the brandy.

  6. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold in last.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites lighten it and give it structure as they set.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, when beaten with the yolks, helps build a smooth, light base.
Grated rye bread
Provides the body of the torte, soaked in brandy so it becomes moist and tender.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the baked torte soft.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the torte rise and become lighter.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites last. Whipped whites hold air that gives the torte its lift. Stirring them in too vigorously deflates the foam, and the torte will bake up dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cinnamon, clove, cream, rye, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cinnamon, clove, cream, rye, bread. 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.

More bread torte recipes

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