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 ↓
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the brandy, wine, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.
Fold in the flour, then add the raisins, currants, sweet almond meats, candied lemon, and citron, ensuring the fruit is floured.
Mix in the molasses and baking soda or baking powder.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 3 hours.
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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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together around the fruit.
- Raisins
- Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the batter.
- Baking soda or baking powder
- Produces gas that makes the dense batter rise during baking.
The step that matters
Flouring the fruit. Tossing the raisins, currants, and peel in flour helps keep them dispersed rather than sinking to the bottom of the heavy batter.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine. 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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