Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Raspberry Sandwich
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.
Beat in the eggs and ground rice.
Gradually add the flour and mix well.
Bake
Spread half the mixture onto buttered parchment paper in shallow tins.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Assemble and serve
Warm the raspberry jam and spread it between the layers.
Sprinkle with sifted sugar and cut into slices.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Rice + raspberrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together201 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sponge and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for lightness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help bind the batter.
- Ground rice
- Gives the sponge a fine, tender, slightly crumbly texture.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the sponge together.
- Raspberry jam
- Adds sweetness, acidity and moisture between the layers.
The step that matters
Mixing in the flour. Once flour is added, overmixing develops gluten and makes the sponge tough and dense. Mix only until the flour is just combined.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, rice, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, rice, 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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