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 ↓
Loaf 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg and sweet milk.
Gradually add the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, mixing well.
Fold in the raisins and essence.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for about 45-50 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.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batch to release gas, helping the loaf rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and helps stabilise the rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give a light texture.
The step that matters
Gradually adding the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Adding dry ingredients in portions and mixing just until combined keeps the batter smooth. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the loaf tough and dense.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, cream. 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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