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Bread

English Raisin Bread

A quick raisin bread made with flour, baking powder, shortening, sugar, raisins, currants, nutmeg, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

English Raisin Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and grated nutmeg.

  2. Cut the shortening into the dry ingredients.

  3. Add the raisins and currants to the mixture.

  4. In another bowl, beat the egg and mix in the milk.

  5. Combine the wet and dry mixtures until just combined.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the loaf rise and become light.
Shortening
Coats flour particles and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter while also enriching it.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry mixtures until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing toughens the batter and can make the loaf dense, so stop as soon as no dry flour streaks remain.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, nutmeg, egg, milk. 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.

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