Name: Sour Milk Rtjsk
Ingredients: one-half cup butter; one cup sour milk; one-half cups sugar; one-half teaspoon soda; three cups sifted flour; one pound raisins; one teaspoon cinnamon; one teaspoon cloves; two eggs

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Sour Milk Rtjsk

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream butter and sugar.
Beat eggs separately and add to butter and sugar.
Add soda to milk and alternate with flour.
Chop raisins and add.
Add spices.

Bake and serve

Bake in a shallow pan in moderate oven.
Serve as a coffee cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

908Calories

28 gProtein

27 gFat

140 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and softening the crumb.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the soda to help the rusk rise.
Soda: Reacts with the sour milk's acid to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the rusk together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness and help bind the batter.
Raisins: Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the bake.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, sugar, flour, raisin, cinnamon, egg):

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, flour, raisin, cinnamon, 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.