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Dessert

General Lee Fruit Cake

A fruit cake with raisins, currants, citron, almonds, and spices baked for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

General Lee Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Separate the eggs.

  3. Beat the whites and yolks separately.

  4. Grease a cake mold and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the yolks with the sugar.

  2. Gradually mix in the butter until well combined.

  3. Add the egg whites, brandy, Madeira wine, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace, and cloves, and stir well.

  4. Alternately add the raisins, currants, citron, and almonds, and mix thoroughly.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into the mold.

  2. Bake for 4 hours.

  3. After removing from the oven, ice the cake within 15 minutes using Florida icing.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while beaten whites lighten its structure.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender crumb and carries the spices.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps cream with the yolks to add body.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and nuts in the cake.
Raisins
Add moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.
Blanched almonds
Add richness, body and a nutty texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that lightens the batter; overmixing after adding them deflates the foam, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, brandy, madeira wine, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, brandy, madeira wine, 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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