Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Rich Spice 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sour milk (or sweet milk mixture) and grated nutmeg.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the floured raisins.
Bake
Pour the batter into two large loaf pans.
Bake slowly until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once its proteins set during baking.
- Sour milk
- Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that leavens the batter.
The step that matters
Bake slowly until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking at a low temperature cooks the large, dense batter evenly so the center sets without the outside over-browning or drying. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms it is fully set.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour. 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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