Name: Loaf Cocoanut Cake
Ingredients: one pound sugar; half pound butter; half pound flour; one pound finely grated cocoanut; three cups of light dough; one cup of butter; one cup of chopped raisins; one cup of sugar; one cup of flour; one teaspoonful of cream-tartar; three teaspoonfuls of warm water; four cups of sugar; four cups of flour; six eggs; three eggs; two heaping cups of sugar; one-half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in three teaspoonfuls of warm water; eleven eggs; vinegar

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 ↓

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 pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs: Eggs provide structure and help the cake rise and set as it bakes.
Butter: Butter adds fat, richness and a tender crumb to the cake.
Flour: Flour forms the cake's structure once it is mixed with liquid and heated.
Sugar: Sugar adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay moist.
Finely grated cocoanut: Grated coconut adds flavour and moisture and gives the cake its character.

The step that matters

Stir the coconut in lightly as the last thing. Folding gently keeps the batter's air and structure intact. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough and dense.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits about as well
Raisinthe original
Strawberryfits less well
Raspberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, cream, egg, vinegar. 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
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Water	not in our table	0

Loaf Cocoanut Cake