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 ↓
Plum or Fruit 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Flour the currants, raisins, and citron before adding them to the mixture.
In a bowl, sift together the flour and cream of tartar.
Make the batter
In another bowl, rub the sugar into the butter until well combined.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the butter and sugar mixture.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then fold in the floured fruits.
Bake
Pour the batter into a pound cake form and bake until golden.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the butter hold air when rubbed in, aiding texture.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, helping the leavening react and keeping the crumb fine.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic ingredients to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Currants
- Supply chewy pieces and concentrated fruit flavor throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Flour the currants, raisins, and citron before adding them. Dusting the fruit with flour helps it stay suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom during baking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, egg, butter, sugar, milk, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, egg, butter, sugar, milk, raisin. 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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