Name: Composition Cake
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour; ¾ cup butter, softened; 2 ½ cups sugar (brown or white); 1 ½ pounds raisins or currants; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups milk; 1 large nutmeg, grated or spice to taste

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 ↓

Composition Cake

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).
Ensure each ingredient is properly prepared before mixing.

Mix and bake

In a large bowl, mix the flour, butter, sugar, raisins or currants, eggs, baking soda, milk, and nutmeg until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for about 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Baking soda: Reacts with the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps with browning and moisture.
Raisins or currants: Provide chewy pockets of sweetness and fruit flavour throughout the cake.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegthe original
Capersfits less well
Jalapenofits less well

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