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 ↓
Nut 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the milk and mix well.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.
Stir in the eggs, raisins, and walnuts until evenly combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the structure as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping the crumb tender.
- Walnuts
- Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor to the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing only until combined limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender rather than tough.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, raisin):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, 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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