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 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.
Add the milk and 2 cups of flour, then mix in the beaten egg whites and the remaining 1 cup of flour with the baking powder.
Pour the batter into jelly tins and bake at 400°F (200°C) until done.
Make the filling and assemble
For the filling, cook 1 cup of sugar until thick without stirring.
Pour the hot sugar over 2 beaten egg whites, then stir in the raisins.
Spread the filling between the layers of the cake.
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
- Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift to the batter when beaten into it.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and lightens.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown; cooked sugar sets the filling.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling sugar without stirring. Sugar syrup that is stirred can crystallise and turn grainy. Cooking it undisturbed until thick keeps the filling smooth. Pouring it hot over the egg whites is also needed so the whites cook slightly and bind the filling.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, 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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