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 ↓
Apple Sauce Cake, Spiced
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the apple sauce, butter or lard, and sugar until well combined.
Stir in the raisins.
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add the flour and spices, mixing until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,920 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Apple sauce
- Adds moisture and sweetness, keeping the cake tender and moist.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter into a cake as it bakes.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it is distributed evenly; pockets of undissolved soda can leave bitter spots or uneven rising. It needs to be mixed in promptly so its gas is trapped by the batter before it escapes.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, butter, sugar, raisin, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, butter, sugar, raisin, flour. 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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