Name: A Milkless, Eggless, Butterless Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup dark-brown sugar; 1 teaspoon ground cinna- \½ cups seeded raisins; 1 cup water; 1 pinch salt; 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in little warm water; 2 cups sifted flour

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 ↓

A Milkless, Eggless, Butterless Cake

Ingredients

1 cup dark-brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinna- \½ cups seeded raisins
1 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon soda dissolved in little warm water
2 cups sifted flour

Directions

Boil the sugar, cinnamon, raisins, water, and salt together for 3 minutes.
When the mixture is cold, stir in 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in little warm water.
Add 2 cups sifted flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder.
Bake in a loaf.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

566Calories

14 gProtein

2 gFat

124 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

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

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal 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.

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).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Seeded raisins: Add sweetness and moisture, and soften during the initial boil to enrich the batter.
Dark-brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour to the cake.
Flour: Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the boiled spiced mixture to lighten the batter and help it rise.

“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.