Name: Graham Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup raisins; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup sour cream; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 eggs; sifted graham flour (as needed)

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 ↓

Graham Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Stew the raisins until tender.
Add flour to the stewed raisins.
Mix in baking soda, salt, and eggs.
Stir until stiff with sifted graham flour.

Bake

Bake until done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Graham flour: Forms the main structure of the cake, setting it as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay moist.
Raisins: Add moisture, chew and sweetness throughout the cake.