Name: Fruit Cake for a Wedding
Ingredients: one-half pounds of butter; quarter pounds of sugar; two pounds of eggs; four pounds of raisins; five pounds of english currants; two pounds of citron; two pounds of sifted flour; one gill to one-half pint of alcohol; one pound of butter; one pound of brown sugar; one pound of sifted flour; one-half cupful of black molasses; three pounds of stoned raisins; three pounds of currants; one pound of citron; one-half pounds of almonds; one tablespoonful of cloves; one-half teaspoonful of soda; one cupful of sugar; one cupful of molasses; one-half cupful of butter; one-half cupful of sour cream; one pound of tigs; one pound of currants; one-half pound of almonds; one gill of wine; one gill of brandy; two teaspoonfuls of cinnamon; one teaspoonful of mace; one cupful of butter

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 ↓

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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs: Yolks enrich and bind the batter; whipped whites add lift and a light structure.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the dense fruit and sets as the cake bakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine texture.
Raisins: Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Citron: Adds candied fruit flavour and chewy pieces distributed through the cake.

The step that matters

Bake slowly and evenly. A dense, fruit-heavy batter needs low, steady heat over a long time so the centre sets without the outside burning. Rushing the bake leaves the middle raw or the crust scorched.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, flour, molasses, almond. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Brandy	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0

Fruit Cake for a Wedding