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 ↓
Minnehaha 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.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Beat the eggs and fold them into the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30‑35 minutes.
Make the filling and finish
For the filling, boil the teacup of sugar with a little water until it becomes brittle when dropped in water.
Remove from heat and quickly stir in the beaten egg white and chopped raisins or nuts.
Spread the filling over the cooled cake.
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 + flourtop 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).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes airy.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Cooking the filling sugar to the brittle stage. Sugar boiled past the right point can turn bitter or hard, while stopping too early leaves a runny filling. Watching for the brittle stage when dropped in water sets the correct texture, and stirring in the egg white quickly keeps the filling from cooking into lumps before it is spread.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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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