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 ↓
White Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the milk gradually.
Mix in the flour with the baking powder sifted in.
Add the egg whites and mix alternately with the flour mixture.
Fold in the raisins that have been dredged in flour.
Bake
Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 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).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps cream with butter to hold air for lightness.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and sweetness scattered through the crumb.
The step that matters
Fold in the raisins that have been dredged in flour. Flour-coated raisins are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter, so they stay distributed through the cake. Folding gently preserves the air in the batter so the cake keeps its rise.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, brandy, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Apricotfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, brandy, 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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