Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓
Tea Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix one quart flour, one cup sour milk, one teaspoon soda, one-half pound lard, and one-half pound chopped raisins or currants.
Roll the dough two inches thick.
Bake and serve
Bake in a quick oven.
Split open, butter, and eat while hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Sour Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough as its gluten and starch set in the oven.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the soda to produce gas, and it adds moisture to the dough.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release carbon dioxide, which lightens the cake.
- Lard
- Fat coats flour proteins and starch, making the cake tender rather than tough.
- Raisins or currants
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Bake in a quick oven. A hot oven makes the soda's gas expand quickly while the starch and proteins set, which fixes the rise. A slow oven lets the dough spread and go dense before it sets.
“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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