Name: Raisin Coffeecake
Ingredients: 5 pounds plain coffeecake; 2 pounds sultana raisins; or 1 pound raisins and 1 pound currants; almonds (optional); citron (optional); orange peel (optional)

Raisin Coffeecake

A raisin coffee cake made by mixing plain coffeecake with raisins or raisins and currants, optionally adding almonds, citron, and orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Raisin Coffeecake

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the plain coffeecake with the sultana raisins or the mixture of raisins and currants.
Add almonds, citron, and orange peel for variety if desired.
You can leave the top plain or sprinkle with almonds and ice it according to your taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sultana raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture, plumping as they soak up moisture from the cake.
Plain coffeecake: Provides the soft, tender crumb that forms the base of the dish.

“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.