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 ↓
Raisin 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sour milk and a few drops of Virot's Rose-water.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the stoned raisins.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and 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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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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Baking powder
- Provides additional lift so the cake rises evenly in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
The step that matters
Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mixing only until just combined keeps the batter tender. 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 (butter, milk, egg, sugar, flour, rose):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Lemonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, sugar, flour, rose. 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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