Name: Mrs. Ired Ale's Potato Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; ½ cup butter; ½ cup sweet milk; 1 cup hot mashed potatoes; 2 cups flour; 1 cup chopped nuts; 1 cup chopped raisins; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 square grated chocolate

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 ↓

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).
Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Nuts + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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

Eggs: Add structure and richness to the batter as they set during baking.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give it a light texture.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Hot mashed potatoes: Add moisture and a soft, tender crumb to the cake.

Swap the nuts

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

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Pistachiofits about as well
Nutsthe original

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