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Dessert

Union Oake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, raisins, currants, whiskey, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,075 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Union Oake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine two thirds cup of butter, two cups of sugar, two thirds cup of milk, three cups of flour, four eggs, two thirds teaspoon cream tartar, and one third of soda, then divide the mixture into three parts.

Add the fruit

  1. Into one part, add one cup of wstoned raisins, two thirds cup of currants, a little citron, and optionally spices, two tablespoons of whiskey or brandy, two ounces of raisins, and two of citron.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in three tins of the same size.

  2. Put jelly between the layers and frosting on top.

By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned 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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and browned.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs (in the method)
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter form a smooth, even mixture.
Cream tartar
Adds acidity that helps stabilise the batter and supports a tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake in three tins of the same size.. Equal tins give layers of even thickness that bake in the same time. Uneven layers can brown or dry out unevenly, leaving some layers underbaked or overdone.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

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

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, cream, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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