Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large bowl, mix the raisins and currants with a little flour to coat them.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Make the batter
Stir in the brandy, wine, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond meats, candied lemon, citron, and molasses.
Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.
Fold in the floured fruit and nuts.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 3 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Raisins
- Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like sweetness.
The step that matters
Coating the fruit in flour. Flour-dusted raisins and currants are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter and stay spread through the cake as it bakes.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine. 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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