Name: Lunch Cake
Ingredients: 1 ½ pounds all-purpose flour; ¾ pound unsalted butter; ½ pound stoned raisins; 3 ounces lemon peel, shredded; ½ pound granulated sugar; 2 tablespoons baking powder; 2 large eggs, beaten; a little milk

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 ↓

Lunch Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, rub together the flour and butter until well combined.
Mix in the raisins, lemon peel, sugar, and baking powder.
Add the beaten eggs and enough milk to form a paste.
Transfer the mixture to a baking tin.

Bake

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure once it is mixed with the eggs and baked.
Unsalted butter: Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure and richness to the cake.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Stoned raisins: Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits about as well
Lemonthe original

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