Name: Rich Cake
Ingredients: half pint of sweet cream; one cup of raisins; one cup of currants; three coffeecups of sugar; four coffee- cups of flour; four eggs; one nutmeg; two teaspoons of bak- ing powder

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 ↓

Rich Cake

Ingredients

Directions

MRS. C, P. HOLMES.
Onpi coffeecup of butter, three coffeecups of sugar, four coffee- cups of flour, a half pint of sweet cream, four eggs, one nutmeg, one cup of raisins, one cup of currants and two teaspoons of bak- ing powder.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

707Calories

20 gProtein

13 gFat

126 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12

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

By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, raisin, sugar, coffee, flour, egg, nutmeg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, raisin, sugar, coffee, flour, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.