Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Dried Apple 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 the apples
Wash and soak the dried apples overnight.
Chop the soaked apples finely and simmer until soft.
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs, molasses, and sour milk to the mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.
Fold in the softened apples and spices.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick 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.
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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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Dried apples
- Provide fruit flavor and moist, chewy pieces throughout the cake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help give the cake structure as it sets.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, caramel-like sweetness.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Adding the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding the flour gradually and mixing only until combined limits gluten development, which keeps the cake tender rather than tough. Baking soda needs the acid in the sour milk to activate, so the batter should go into the pan soon after mixing.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, molasses, flour, milk, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, molasses, flour, milk, 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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