Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
English War Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Boil hot water, brown sugar, raisins, and lard together for three minutes.
Cool the mixture.
Add baking soda.
Add sifted flour mixed with baking powder.
Bake
Pour into a round pan.
Bake.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raisins
- Plump in the boiling liquid and add chewy texture and sweetness.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deeper color to the cake.
- Lard
- Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and moist.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas that helps the cake rise and lighten.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Adds extra lift so the batter rises evenly while baking.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding baking soda. Baking soda reacts quickly once it meets the hot, wet mixture. Letting the mixture cool first slows that reaction, so the gas is still available to lift the batter in the oven rather than escaping early.
“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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