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 says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda, then gradually add to the mixture.
Fold in the Sultana raisins and lemon oil.
Bake
Pour the batter into ordinary cake pans.
Bake 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 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).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and carries flavor through the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake as it sets during baking.
- Powdered white sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, fine crumb when creamed with butter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and stabilizes it, working with baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Sifting and adding the dry ingredients gradually. Mixing flour in too quickly or overmixing develops gluten and can make the cake tough. Adding the dry mix gradually and stopping once combined keeps the crumb tender and the leavening evenly distributed.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, cream, sugar, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, cream, sugar, raisin. 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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