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 ↓
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar in lukewarm milk.
Add 1½ cups of flour and beat well.
Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise for 1 hour or until light.
Mix the batter
Add creamed butter, sugar, floured fruit, remaining flour to make a good cake batter, salt, and well-beaten eggs.
Beat for 10 minutes.
Shape and bake
Pour into well-buttered molds, filling them about half full.
Cover and let rise until molds are nearly full.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).
If made into two cakes, bake for 45 minutes; if one large cake, bake for 1 hour.
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.
-
Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness to the batter as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the cake crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and yeast and adds moisture to the dough.
The step that matters
Let the molds rise until nearly full. Yeast needs room and time to expand the dough before baking. Under-proofed cakes stay dense, while over-proofed ones can collapse or bake unevenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, egg, flour, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, egg, flour, 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.
More coffee cake recipes
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.