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 ↓
Nut 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sour milk, raisins, and butternut meats.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or 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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butternut + flourtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Raisin + butternuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with butter, aiding a light texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main 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.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda for lift.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Mixing only until just combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the butternut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, raisin, meat, flour, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Walnutfits about as well
- Butternutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, raisin, meat, flour, egg. 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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