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 ↓
Scotch Currant Bannock
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 the fruit
Clean the raisins and currants, then leave them in a colander overnight to drain.
Make the dough
In the evening, set a sponge using 1 cup of yeast as you would for two loaves of bread.
In the morning, sift the flour into a large pan and rub the lard and butter into it.
Mix in the sugar, caraway seed, and orange peel. Add the drained raisins and currants.
Stir everything together thoroughly and knead like bread, adding more flour if necessary.
Put the dough back in the pan to rise until light.
Bake
Knead down again and place into a large, round baking pan.
After rising, bake carefully for at least 2 hours at 350°F (175°C), covering with a pie tin if the top bakes too quickly.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + carawaytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together75 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Caraway + orangetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together158 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yeast
- Leavens the dough so it rises and becomes light before baking.
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure, which traps gas and sets during baking.
- Lard and butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness, chewiness and moisture throughout the bread.
- Currants
- Add tart, concentrated fruit flavour and moisture throughout the bread.
The step that matters
Bake carefully, covering the top if it browns too quickly. Long baking at moderate heat cooks the dense, fruit-filled centre through, while the sugar in the crust browns quickly. A loose cover of foil or a pie tin slows surface browning so the interior can finish without burning the top.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, flour, caraway, sugar, orange):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, flour, caraway, sugar, orange. 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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