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 ↓
Plain Fruit 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).
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Add the chopped raisins, sour milk, flour, eggs, baking soda, and molasses.
Mix until well combined, adding spices to taste.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for about 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.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat that creams with the sugar to trap air and give a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter into a cake as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
The step that matters
Mixing in the baking soda with the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release gas for lift. The sour milk and molasses supply it, so the batter should be mixed and poured promptly, before the gas escapes and the cake rises less.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, molasses):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Peachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, molasses. 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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