Why it works: Currant and allspice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,359 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓
Plain Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Clean the currants by rubbing them in a cloth.
Grease a 1 lb loaf tin with a piece of dripping.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Rub the clarified dripping into the flour until no lumps remain.
Add the currants, allspice, and brown sugar to the flour mixture.
Mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon.
Pour in the milk and mix until well combined.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into the greased tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
Remove the tin from the oven and turn the cake out to cool on its side.
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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Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,359 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Currant + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure as gluten forms when the batter is mixed with milk.
- Clarified dripping
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the crumb.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form the batter and keeps the cake moist.
The step that matters
Rubbing in the dripping. Rubbing the fat into the flour until no lumps remain coats the flour particles so less gluten forms, which keeps the crumb tender rather than tough.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, allspice, sugar, milk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, allspice, sugar, milk. 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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