Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pound 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
Finely shred the mixed candied peel, using equal parts of orange, lemon, and citron.
Blanch the almonds and chop them finely.
Sift the flour onto a sheet of paper and mix in the candied peel and chopped almonds.
Make the batter
In a clean bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy.
Add the sugar to the butter and beat well.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Carefully mix in the flour mixture, adding a little milk if necessary to achieve cake batter consistency.
Bake
Pour the batter into round tins lined with greased parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1¼ to 2 hours, ensuring the oven is well heated to prevent the currants from sinking.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + macetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as they set in the oven.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, even texture.
- Currants
- Add sweetness and fruity chew throughout the cake.
- Mixed candied peel
- Adds concentrated citrus sweetness and aroma throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Preheat the oven and bake at the stated heat. The oven must be well heated before the batter goes in. A slow start lets the batter thin before it sets, so the heavy currants and peel sink to the bottom of the cake.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, currant, egg, almond):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, currant, egg, almond. 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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