Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Coffee 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
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, mix the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Make the batter
Add the molasses, strong coffee, ground cloves, and cinnamon; mix well.
Stir in the flour and baking soda until combined.
Dredge the raisins in a little flour and fold them into the batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake slowly at first.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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 structure that holds the dense batter together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and deep flavor of the cake.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, when creamed with butter, helps trap air for a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Bake slowly at first. Batters rich in molasses and sugar brown quickly. A gentle start in the oven lets the center set and rise evenly before the outside darkens too much.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, butter, coffee, raisin, cinnamon, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, coffee, raisin, 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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