Name: Republican Cake
Ingredients: 2 eggs; ½ cup milk; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 cup melted butter; 1 cup brown sugar; 2 cups flour; 2 pounds raisins; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon nutmeg

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 ↓

Republican Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
Mix the eggs, cream of tartar, melted butter, and brown sugar in a large bowl.
Add the dissolved baking soda and milk to the mixture.
Gradually stir in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

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).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the cinnamon

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

Cinnamonthe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Capersfits less well
Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, butter, sugar, flour, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.